Independence Referenda Only Count when Washington and its Allies Say They Count

Strategic Culture

Wayne Madsen

The parliament of the former Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea voted in a referendum to declare independence from Ukraine and petition the Russian Federation to join it as an autonomous republic. The vote was 96.7 per cent in favor of leaving Ukraine. 

Although some Crimean Tatar leaders called for a boycott of the Crimea vote, high voter turnout was reported across Crimea, including in primarily Tatar voting districts. Observers from the European Parliament, Poland, the European Union, France, Germany, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Austria stated that the election was fair and turnout across the board was high…

As with the aftermaths of other independence referenda, the state property of the former governing power, in this case Ukraine, came under the control of the successor government, Crimea. In addition, the laws of the former governing country, Ukraine, no longer applied to Crimea. As with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Crimean government appealed for international recognition. The United States and European Union threatened a cut-off in assistance to countries that considered recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a policy that will undoubtedly be extended to countries considering recognizing Crimea.

The head of the referendum commission, Mikhail Malyshev, said not one complaint had been registered concerning the vote. Nevertheless, corporatist leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (who has voiced his opposition to forthcoming independence referenda in Scotland and Catalonia) rejected the referenda results and announced that they do not recognize the results but would push for punishing sanctions against Russia and Crimea. Ukraine acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who is a favorite of the neo-conservative cabal that continues to dominate U.S. foreign policy and who has reported strong links to the cultish Church of Scientology, was even more incendiary in his comments when he said «the ground will burn beneath the feet» of Crimea’s independence leaders. 

The history of referenda on independence and secession demonstrates that they are only recognized internationally when the United States and the international bodies over which Washington maintains de facto control, for example, the United Nations and European Union, give them sanction.

The Crimean parliament issued the following request to the world: «The republic of Crimea appeals to the United Nations and to all countries of the world to recognize it as an independent state, established by the Crimean people». That request was met with hostility from the usurper government in Kiev and from its supporters in Washington, Brussels, London, and other corporatist capitals.

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