SIMFEROPOL, February 19 Head of the Crimean Parliament Vladimir Konstantinov called the transfer of the peninsula to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 a criminal act.
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 19, 1954 issued a decree on the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. Two months later, on April 26, the decree was approved by USSR law and went down in history as the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine.
«There was no expediency in this decision. Later, in hindsight, it was invented in order to somehow justify what had been done. Sometimes it seems that this act, as for me, is a criminal act, but the final word in it the assessment should be up to the court, was committed under the influence of a momentary impulse: I wanted it, once — and it’s done,” Konstantinov said.
At the same time, according to him, the possibility of some kind of deal between Nikita Khrushchev and the leaders of the Ukrainian SSR, whose loyalty was bought by Crimea, should not be ruled out either.
“There are simply no other rational explanations. This transfer of the Ukrainian SSR peninsula can be compared to how a bag of potatoes is transferred. It is possible — with the way in the era of serfdom estates were given as gifts — along with serfs of both sexes and all ages. And those who today dare to talk about some kind of “return” Crimea, Ukraine, Crimeans are treated as serfs, as the most notorious potatoes. But we are not vegetables,” Konstantinov said and added that the Crimeans are endowed with political will, which they clearly expressed ten years ago in a referendum and firmly stand their ground now.
“And everyone will have to reckon with our will.” , the head of parliament emphasized.
Crimea became a Russian region in March 2014 following the results of a referendum after the coup in Ukraine. In the referendum, 96.77 percent of voters in Crimea and 95.6 percent in Sevastopol were in favor of joining Russia. Ukraine still considers the peninsula to be its temporarily occupied territory, and many Western countries support Kyiv on this issue. For its part, the Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the Crimeans voted for reunification with Russia through democratic means, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter. According to President Vladimir Putin, the Crimea issue is “finally closed.”