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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Crimean Parliament declares independence from Ukraine


Election poster in Sevastopol, Crimea calling people to vote in the upcoming referendum.
(Reuters / Baz Ratner)

"We the People?"
  • Maybe not.  Still the Parliament of the Crimea has just as much legal standing to declare independence as the Continental Congress had on July 4, 1776 to defy their King.


The parliament of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has adopted an independence declaration from Ukraine which is necessary for holding a March 16 referendum.

“We, the members of the parliament of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council, with regard to the charter of the United Nations and a whole range of other international documents and taking into consideration the confirmation of the status of Kosovo by the United Nations International Court of Justice on July, 22, 2010, which says that unilateral declaration of independence by a part of the country doesn’t violate any international norms, make this decision,” says the text of the declaration, which was published by the Crimean media.

The document was adopted during an extraordinary session of parliament reports RT News.

78 of 100 members of the parliament voted in favor of the declaration.

The Crimean parliament’s vote to become an independent sovereign state paves the way for the March 16 referendum for the Crimean Autonomous Republic and the city of Sevastopol to join Russia.

If the referendum is in favor, the Crimean authorities will request for their country to become a constituent republic of the Russian Federation.

The declaration was signed by the speaker of the Supreme Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, and the head of the Sevastopol City Council, Yury Doynikov.

“We adopted the declaration of independence to make the upcoming referendum legitimate and transparent,” Konstantinov said.

“Now we declare ourselves the Republic of Crimea, we don’t add ‘autonomous."


It's Nationalism Folks
The maps above and below tell the real story of what is happening in the Ukraine. 
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The Ukrainian "nation" is an artificial and accidental creation of the collapse of the Soviet Union and was part of Imperial Russia for centuries.  In voting for their President and in street protests the Ukrainian "nation" breaks down almost exactly along the lines of who speaks what language.
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I have no problem with Ukrainian speaking peoples having their own nation.  But I suspect the Russian speaking population has other ideas.  In any case, these are problems for the locals to sort out.  The United States has better things to do.

The Ukraine is split by language and culture.


Top map courtesy of Left Coast Rebel.

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