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Crimea and Sevastopol

Legal basis of Crimea’s reunification with Russia indisputable — official

"We did everything within the framework of international law, under our law, in accordance with our Constitution, we held a referendum," Vladimir Konstantinov stressed

SIMFEROPOL, March 18. /TASS/. The procedure of Crimea’s reunification with Russia is fully compliant with international law. No expert would be able to challenge the legal basis of this process, Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov told TASS.

Following the February, 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine, the authorities of Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum on reunification with Russia, with 96.7% and 95.6% voting in favor of reunification with Russia, accordingly. On March 18, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia.

"We did everything within the framework of international law, under our law, in accordance with our Constitution, we held a referendum. The West pretended it 'did not notice' all that. It was of great importance to us that each step of our movement, the referendum process, its legitimization went within the legal dimension. Today, not a single expert in the world will find a single flaw in what we’ve done," Konstantinov said.

He pointed out that, during the referendum, the people of Crimea used a nation’s right for self-identification, one of the basic principles of the UN Charter.

"When is a nation entitled to that? When someone wants to see it exterminated. When a state that the nation is a part of wants to exterminate it. This is when this right enters into effect," the Speaker of the Crimean Parliament said.

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Crimea and Sevastopol Russia's domestic policy

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