Vladimir Putin's speech on the accession of Crimea on March 18, 2014

Vladimir Putin in the George Hall of the Kremlin during his speech on March 18, 2014

The speech of Vladimir Putin to the accession of the Crimea on March 18, 2014 took place at George Hall of the Kremlin to the members of the Federation Council and deputies of the Duma instead. Immediately after Putin's address, the treaty on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as the 84th and 85th federal subjects of the Union of the Russian Federation was signed.

Content of the speech

Putin initially described the referendum held in Crimea on March 16, 2014 on the status of Crimea as “convincing”. This referendum - so Putin's claim - met democratic standards and was conducted in accordance with international law. Putin justified Russia's actions during the Crimean crisis with references to history and the mood of the population in Crimea and Russia, not without pointing out the “sins” of the Bolsheviks, which parts of the historical south of Russia joined the Ukrainian Republic would have.

The Russian President then responded to the decision of the Soviet government made in 1954 to annex Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic . This decision was a mistake and a violation of the then valid constitutional norms and was "made in back rooms". When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 , "the Russians have become the largest dispersed people in the world". The Russian government has long been too weak to defend the rights of the Russian people.

Putin expressed understanding for the peaceful protests within the framework of the Euromaidan ; it is legitimate to protest against corruption, inefficient administration and poverty. Behind the events, however, stood “nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites”, who now determined Ukraine by means of “terror, murder and pogroms”; Putin described the resulting change of power in Ukraine as a coup d'état : In Ukraine there is currently no legitimate executive power and therefore no one to negotiate with. In connection with threatened repression and punitive actions, the inhabitants of Crimea and Sevastopol turned to Russia for help.

Putin said Russia is opposed to dividing Ukraine. “We don't want a split in Ukraine, we don't need that”. Putin also stated that minority rights should be respected in Crimea and that in future there should be three official languages with equal rights : Russian , Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar .

The Russian President expressed criticism of the United States , which acted “according to the law of the strongest” and ignored the UN Security Council. That was how it was in 1999, when bombs were thrown on Belgrade and the intervention in Kosovo began (after Russia prevented a UN mission with its threatened veto in the Security Council). Even Libya has been bombed, although the UN Security Council only a UN no-fly zone would have ordered. Russia was also confronted with a fait accompli with NATO's eastward expansion . In Ukraine, the West has now crossed a “red line” and behaved “unprofessionally and irresponsibly”.

Putin compared the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation with German reunification . In 1990, in contrast to some other countries, Russia expressly agreed to the will of the German people for unity. Now the “restoration of unity” should also be accepted in Russia. Putin rejected accusations from the West that Russia had violated international law in Crimea. The number of Russian armed forces on the peninsula has been increased. But this was done within the permissible number for the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet . The Russian President praised the Ukrainian military in Crimea for "keeping quiet and not smearing their hands with blood".

At the end of his address, Putin applied to include Crimea and Sevastopol in the Russian Federation. Immediately after the speech, the Russian President signed the relevant follow-up agreement with the head of government and the President of the Crimean parliament.

Reactions and reception in the media

The federal government rejected Putin's comparison between the events in Crimea and German reunification. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said that German unity had reunited two separate states of the same nation. Russian intervention, on the other hand, would lead to the division of Ukraine. In addition, German unity was accompanied by the international community, which was not the case in the Crimean crisis.

The British government replied to the speech on March 21st and explicitly rejected seven misrepresentations: These concerned the legitimacy of the referendum of March 16 and Putin's accusation against the Ukrainian interim government regarding non-existent violent attacks. On this point the British government stated: “The single greatest destabilizing force in Ukraine right now is Russia.” (Russia is currently the most important destabilizing force in Ukraine). The British government also denied Putin's allegations of discrimination against the Russian language. Thus the situation in Crimea cannot be compared with the situation that prevailed in Kosovo in 1999. Putin's claims that there is no legitimate government in Ukraine and that the Russian military was only used in Crimea within the framework of international agreements are also false.

In a speech in Brussels on March 26, 2014, US President Barack Obama declared that the world must not accept the annexation of Crimea. Russia's leadership "is attacking truths that were taken for granted weeks ago: that in the 21st century the borders in Europe cannot be redrawn with force". Furthermore, Obama contradicted equating the situation in Crimea with the separation of Kosovo from Serbia: “ Kosovo only left Serbia after a referendum that was not organized outside the limits of international law and in careful cooperation with the United Nations and Kosovo's neighbors was. The events in Crimea are nowhere near comparable . ”Obama's statement is wrong, as this alleged Kosovo referendum never took place.

In reactions of the German-speaking media to Putin's speech, for example on Spiegel Online, it was emphasized that the Russian President directed his speech primarily to the West or settled with the West. He left no room for compromise and instead proclaimed the return of Russia as a great power. Regarding the Kosovo comparison, the FAZ said before: “It was only when Russia did not support the authorization to use force that NATO stepped in. Overall, NATO endeavored to act in accordance with the United Nations. That is something completely different than a violent land grab. ”However, the constitutional lawyer Reinhard Merkel warned against using the term“ annexation ”lightly. He formulated that the sequence of “secession”, “referendum” and “accession” precluded an “annexation” - “ even if all three should have been in violation of international law. ". Furthermore, according to Reinhard Merkel, the Russian troops in the Crimea only "secured" the possibility of secession, referendum and accession. The troops had no influence on their outcome.

Web links

Annotated German version of the speech , Archipel Krim: A multimedia dossier , from dekoder.org , Center for Eastern Europe and International Studies , Research Center Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen , March 18, 2019
English version of the speech , website of the President of Russia, accessed June 23, 2014
Recording of the speech with simultaneous German translation from phoenix.de, accessed on youtube.com on June 23, 2014

Individual evidence

↑ Putin: Crimean referendum on the annexation to Russia convincing , Die Zeit of March 18, 2014.

↑ Putin on Crimea: Repairing a bug , ORF website from March 18, 2014.

↑ Putin speech on the Crimean crisis: The Great Power , SPON of March 18, 2014.

↑ Speech in the Kremlin: Putin's reunification , FAZ of March 18, 2014.

↑ Putin's speech to the world , NZZ of March 23, 2014.

↑ "The Crimea will always remain part of Russia" , FAZ from March 18, 2014.

↑ Putin calls Crimea an “inseparable” part of Russia ( Memento from March 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), website of the Tagesschau from March 18, 2014.

^ War missions without a UN mandate. Deutsche Welle, August 30, 2013; "The Security Council described the situation in Kosovo, the ethnic cleansing, in an absolutely realistic way", said Eisele. "The only thing missing was that there was some consequence of it, since Moscow threatened its veto."