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Kosovo independence proclamation leaves no grounds for legal claims to Crimean parliament

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Lavrov urges Kerry to respect Crimea’s right to independently determine republic’s fate

MOSCOW, March 11. /ITAR-TASS/. After Kosovo independence proclamation there can be no grounds for legal claims to the Crimean Supreme Council that passed the declaration of independence from Ukraine and intention to accede to Russia, Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters on Tuesday.

Margelov holds that the Supreme Council of Crimea justifiably refers to the international precedent connected with Kosovo experience. “This circumstance makes irrelevant any legal claims to Crimean parliamentarians as international law is based on precedents,” he stressed. “The point is that Simferopol needs no Kiev’s consent to a referendum on accession to Russia,” Margelov noted.

“The Kosovo precedent was planned and endorsed by the West, so it was not Russia that let the genie of self-determination of nations in Europe out of the bottle,” he noted.

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Ukraine crisis Referendum in Crimea

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