“A new referendum in Crimea would be for Russia a sign of the political power, rather than weakness”

Press Release, 24.11.2017

Grigory Yavlinsky, the presidential candidate of Russia, has launched a special website, where he answers questions about ways to solve the problem of Crimea and about the relations between Russia and Ukraine. Yavlinsky again calls for an international conference that could initiate a new referendum on the status of Crimea. Yavlinsky says that returning to the question of a new referendum in Crimea would be for Russia a sign of the political power, rather than weakness”.

Grigory Yavlinsky stresses that “the problem of Crimea will not resolve on its own” – the world does not recognise the peninsula as Russian, and this problem will still have to be solved, as because of the sanctions the country has already lost over 9 trillion roubles. “In the 21st century, no single world economy is able to survive in isolation. Moreover it is impossible to engage modern science and develop high technologies in isolation,” Yavlinsky notes.

He believes that in 2014, when Crimea was taken by Russia, laws were seriously violated, in particular the agreement on the Russian-Ukrainian border, signed by President Putin in January 2003.

The legal way out of this situation may be convening under the auspices of the UN of an international conference on the status of the Crimea, where a road map will be drawn up “on the basis of the law and taking into account the will of the people”. According to Yavlinsky, all parties influencing the situation should take part in the conference: Russia, Ukraine, the European Union (first of all the countries of the Normandy Four such as Germany and France), the United Kingdom and the USA (as guarantor countries that signed the Budapest Memorandum), Turkey and representatives of Crimea.

“It is quite possible that the conference will decide to hold a new referendum under international control, which all the parties recognise. Such a referendum will put an end to this dangerous situation,” Grigory Yavlinsky stresses.

According to the presidential candidate, this proposal is not only realistic, but also has no alternative – “international experience shows that this will takes place sooner or later.”

Answering the popular opinion that “playing it back” under the pressure of the West will be a manifestation of weakness, Yavlinsky points out that on the contrary “returning to the question of holding a legitimate referendum in Crimea is a sign of political power”.

The web-site gives answers to the most common questions about Crimea, in particular: is it possible to hold a referendum according to the Ukrainian law? and what if NATO came to Crimea? is it possible to return Crimea to Ukraine? In addition, one can leave a question on the website, as well as find out what Vladimir Putin thought about the status of Crimea in 2008, what the residents of Crimea are deprived of now, and what role the peninsula played in the family history of Grigory Yavlinsky.

Grigory Yavlinsky first proposed the initiative to hold an international conference on Crimea in March 2014.