Konstantinov: the transfer of Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 was not legally formalized

Preparation of a justification for the cancellation of the 1954 decision to transfer the Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR will take a little time, since the process of transferring the peninsula was not legally formalized, the violations committed are gross and flagrant, declared “RIA Novosti” head of the Crimean parliament Vladimir Konstantinov.

“We have formed our claims. Looking closely at this issue, it becomes clear that we never left the composition of the Russian Federation, whose borders did not change in 1954, and therefore in 2014. That is, the process of our acceptance – transfer was not only a gross disregard for the political will of the Crimeans, it was not legally formalized, ”said Konstantinov.

According to the head of the Crimean Parliament, we are talking about serious violations, and it is still not clear “how this could happen.” The bodies that decided to transfer the peninsula from one republic to another did not have such powers, Konstantinov said.

“It is as if the Crimean State Council decided to transfer Texas to Mexico. This is the first. Secondly, the supreme councils of the republics did not make decisions about the transfer at all. And, thirdly, the borders of the union republics were not discussed and designated after the change in the “place of registration” of Crimea, and this is a key moment in making such a decision. This is not to mention the fact that referendums were not held, which were implied by the Constitution of the USSR,” he said.

Earlier this week Konstantinov instructed the Scientific Council for Lawmaking under the Chairman of the State Council to work out an appeal to the Constitutional Court to cancel the Soviet decree on the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine.

A proposal to cancel the decision of 1954 was previously made by the senator from the Crimea, Sergei Tsekov. According to him, Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, “has every right to do so.”

Crimea was included in the Ukrainian SSR on February 19, 1954. It is believed that the initiator of the transfer of Crimea was the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev. From 1938 to 1949, with a short break, he headed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, that is, he actually led the republic.

One of the explanations for the change in the “registration” of Crimea was the difficult economic situation on the peninsula after the war: destroyed cities, a difficult demographic situation, a shortage of workers due to military losses and the deportation of Crimean Tatars. Between the continental part of Russia and the Crimea was Ukraine, from where transport communications, building materials and equipment, and electricity went to the peninsula. President Vladimir Putin noted that Khrushchev may also have been motivated by the desire to “enlist the support of the Ukrainian nomenklatura.”

Crimea became part of Russia in 2014 after a referendum. According to its results, 96.77% of voters in the republic and 95.6% in Sevastopol were in favor of joining Russia. In 2015, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation considered the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 unconstitutional.