Russian Foreign Ministry: Tymoshenko incorrectly interprets the Budapest Memorandum
Yulia Tymoshenko interprets the 1994 Budapest Memorandum one-sidedly when she calls for the return of Crimea to Ukraine within the framework of the “Budapest format.”
Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told reporters about this today, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to her, the issue of the relationship between the principle of territorial integrity and the right to self-determination was resolved by the 1970 declaration, which confirms the inviolability of territorial integrity or political unity only for those sovereign and independent states that comply with the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples living in a given territory.
“For some reason this gets overlooked all the time. After the overthrow of Yanukovych and the coup d'etat as a result of the Maidan, it can hardly be said that the authorities in Kyiv represented the people of Crimea. The territorial integrity of Ukraine was destroyed as a result of the policies of illegal authorities. They seized power in Kyiv, primarily in relation to national minorities,” Zakharova said.
She recalled that simultaneously with the 1994 memorandum, a joint statement by Russia, Britain, the United States and Ukraine was adopted in Budapest, which confirmed the importance of countering aggressive nationalism and chauvinism.
“It is clear that it was these extremely negative phenomena in Ukrainian politics that led to the secession of Crimea. The Budapest Memorandum does not impose any obligations on Russia to force Crimea to remain part of Ukraine. There is no need to remove some provisions from international agreements without noticing others. These things are interconnected,” summed up Maria Zakharova.
Russian Foreign Ministry : Tymoshenko is misinterpreting the Budapest Memorandum