Der Beitritt der Republik Krim zur Russ- ländischen Föderation aus der Warte des Selbstbestimmungsrechts der Völker

The proclamation of the Republic of Crimea as independent and the subsequent accession to the Russian Federation (RF) is considered to be a legitimate realization of the Crimea people's right to self-determination. The adoption of the Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol as new subjects of the Russian Federation is a process which has not started in February 2014 but which dates back to the end of the former Soviet Union and is roughly as old as the history of the independent Ukraine. It is part of the revolutionary events having taken place all over the Ukraine and answers anti-Russian movements in the Western part of the Ukraine and in the capital Kiev by pro-Russian forces, both of them acting on a revolutionary ground. Even assumed, the unidentified armed forces who appeared during the hasty final stage of the process (end of February until end of March 2014), were to be attributed to the RF, no annexation took place. The RF acted within the framework of a state answering to the request of a people exercising its right to self-determination by »free association or integration with an independent state« according to the terms of the Friendly Relations Declaration read in the context of the UN Charter and Article 1 of the UN Covenants 1966. Neither was Crimea's freedom to expression of its will limited or influenced, nor could Crimea be called a Ukrainian territory, when these events took place. Events to be considered part of revolution were superimposed by events as part of exercise of the Crimea people's right to self-determination. These conclusions are supported by taking evidence from a detailed analysis of the historical example of Slovenia and to a small degree also of Estonia and comparing this analysis to the relationship between the Ukraine and Crimea in the period 1990–2014.