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Parliamentary elections took place in the Republic of Crimea on 14 September 2014. [1] These were the first elections since Crimea's illegal annexation by the Russian Federation on 18 March. The outcome was an overwhelming victory for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.
On 17 April 2014, after the annexation, Russian president Putin submitted a draft law on parliamentary elections in Crimea and Sevastopol to the State Duma, setting 14 September 2014 as the election date. On this day also election were held in 30 Russian regions and 14 regional (Russian) legislatures. [2]
According to Crimean State Council Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov, the elections would be conducted according to a mixed system. Fifty deputies were to be elected on party-list proportional representation and 25 in majority constituencies.
Russian Central Election Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov said that the commission filed a request for funding with the government for 400 million roubles to conduct the election. [3]
On 9 September 2014 Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov announced that Crimean residents "who did not manage to obtain a passport of the Russian Federation" would be able to participate in the elections using their "Ukrainian local registration". [4]
The local Crimean Tatars had called for a boycott of the elections. [2]
Opposition figures in Crimea complained that they were deprived of a chance to win seats because of "Administrative resource-tactics" that made sure unapproved challengers would have no chance of gaining traction. [2]
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) identified a situation of multiple and continuing human-rights violations in Crimea after the start of the Russian occupation. It found the situation when Russia held its election was marked by persistent intimidation that targeted those who had opposed the annexation "referendum" or were critical of de-facto "authorities", as well as Crimea's Indigenous Crimean Tatar nation, which caused increasing numbers to leave the peninsula. The intimidation included waves of forced disappearances, intrusive searches, and criminalization of the Crimean Tatars' national body, the Mejlis. [5] : 41
The OHCHR also noted that the participation of residents of Crimea in Ukraine's parliamentary elections of 26 October were limited by the need to travel to mainland Ukraine to vote, the burden of crossing administrative checkpoints from the occupied territory and back, and the fear of possible reprisals from the so-called authorities. Voters were summoned by Crimean police for "conversations" warning about "extremist activities", and had their personal data recorded by "Crimean self-defence" while leaving Russian-controlled territory. [6] : 119 Only 2,800 Crimean voters voted in the parliamentary election, or 0.2% of pre-annexation registered voters [5] : 6 In Ukraine's 25 May presidential elections, 6,000 Crimean residents had voted according to the Central Election Commission. [6] : 94
According to the election commission's reported results, only two parties overcame the election threshold: of the council's 75 seats, United Russia won 70 mandates because its candidates won in all 25 single-member constituencies and it won 71.06% of the party-list vote; the other 5 mandates went to the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia which won 8.14% of the party-list vote. [2] [7] [8] Voter turnout was 54% according to the commission. [7]
Russian media reported that 803 candidates had tried to win seats; 108 candidates in one of the single-member constituencies and the rest as candidates as member of 12 political parties. [8]
 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |||||
| Party-list | Constituency | Total | ||||||
| United Russia | 515,926 | 72.76 | 45 | 25 | 70 | |||
| Liberal Democratic Party of Russia | 62,380 | 8.80 | 5 | 0 | 5 | |||
| Communist Party of the Russian Federation | 32,952 | 4.65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Rodina | 19,479 | 2.75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Communists of Russia | 15,480 | 2.18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Russian Party of Pensioners for Social Justice | 14,220 | 2.01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| A Just Russia – For Truth | 13,546 | 1.91 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Democratic Party of Russia | 9,723 | 1.37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Patriots of Russia | 8,634 | 1.22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Communist Party of Social Justice | 6,199 | 0.87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Russian Ecological Party "The Greens" | 5,872 | 0.83 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Party of Veterans of Russia | 4,645 | 0.66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 709,056 | 100.00 | 50 | 25 | 75 | |||
| Valid votes | 709,056 | 96.45 | ||||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 26,090 | 3.55 | ||||||
| Total votes | 735,146 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,372,655 | 53.56 | ||||||
| Source: Crimea Electoral Commission | ||||||||
The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris, Taurica, and the Tauric Chersonese, begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome. The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341–1204), the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461), and the independent Principality of Theodoro. In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince Vladimir the Great was baptised at Sevastopol, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, and in the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times was frequent raids into Russia for slaves.
The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People is the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars in period between sessions of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People. The Mejlis is a member institution of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.
The Party "Soyuz" is a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine that was mostly based in Crimea until 2014. It was registered in June 1997 under a registration number 867.
Russian Unity was a political party in Crimea, registered in October 2008. A Kyiv Court banned the party "from activity on the territory of Ukraine" on 30 April 2014. Party leader Sergey Aksyonov was instrumental in making possible the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. The party was based in Crimea, which has a Russian-speaking majority. The party was dissolved on 5 May 2014.
Snap presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 25 May 2014 and resulted in Petro Poroshenko being elected President of Ukraine. Originally scheduled to take place on 29 March 2015, the date was changed following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Poroshenko won the elections with 55% of the vote, enough to win in a single round. His closest competitor, Yulia Tymoshenko, emerged with 13% of the vote. The Central Election Commission reported voter turnout over 60%, excluding the regions not under government control. Since Poroshenko obtained an absolute majority in the first round, a run-off second ballot was unnecessary.
Pavlo Valentynovych Lebedyev is a Russian and former Ukrainian politician, financier and businessman who is currently a member of the Board of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE). Head of Coordination Council of the Crimean branches of RUIE.
The Crimean status referendum of 2014 was a disputed referendum on March 16, 2014, concerning the status of Crimea that was conducted in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol after Russian forces seized control of Crimea.
Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov is a Russian politician serving as the head of the Republic of Crimea since 9 October 2014, a territory internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.
The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation took place in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. On 22–23 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss pullout of deposed President, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin remarked that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia.". Russia sent in soldiers on February 27, 2014. Crimea held a referendum. According to official Russian and Crimean sources 95% voted to reunite with Russia. The legitimacy of the referendum has been questioned by the international community on both legal and procedural grounds.
The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is an administrative division of Ukraine encompassing most of Crimea that was unilaterally annexed by Russia in 2014. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea occupies most of the peninsula, while the City of Sevastopol occupies the rest.
The Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet consists of three bilateral agreements between Russia and Ukraine signed on 28 May 1997 whereby the two countries established two independent national fleets, divided armaments and bases between them, and set forth conditions for basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. The treaty was supplemented by provisions in the Russian–Ukrainian Friendship Treaty, which was signed three days later. Russia unilaterally terminated the Partition Treaty in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The Republic of Crimea is a republic of Russia, comprising most of the Crimean Peninsula, but excluding Sevastopol. Its territory corresponds to the pre-2023 territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a de jure subdivision of Ukraine. Russia occupied and annexed the peninsula in 2014, although the annexation remains internationally unrecognized.
On 18 March 2014, Russian president Vladimir Putin gave a speech to both chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in connection with the request for admission by the Crimean parliament of the republic in the Russian Federation. He spoke in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace in the Moscow Kremlin.
The majority of the Crimean population adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, with the Crimean Tatars forming a Sunni Muslim minority, besides smaller Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Greek Catholic, Armenian Apostolic and Jewish minorities.
The Ministry of Interior in the Republic of Crimea is de facto the main police authority in Crimea in the Southern Federal District that was established by Russia after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Crimea is recognized as part of Ukraine by most of the international community.
The Crimean problem or the Crimean question is a dispute over the status of Crimea between Ukraine and Russia.
Legislative elections were held in Russia on 18 September 2016, having been brought forward from 4 December. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma of the 7th convocation, the lower house of the Federal Assembly. Prior to the election United Russia had been the ruling party since winning the 2011 elections with 49.32% of the vote, and taking 238 seats (53%) of the seats in the State Duma.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence the majority ethnic Russian Crimean peninsula was reorganized as the Republic of Crimea, after a 1991 referendum with the Crimean authorities pushing for more independence from Ukraine and closer links with Russia. In 1995 the Republic was forcibly abolished by Ukraine with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea established firmly under Ukrainian authority. There were also intermittent tensions with Russia over the Soviet Fleet, although a 1997 treaty partitioned the Soviet Black Sea Fleet allowing Russia to continue basing its fleet in Sevastopol with the lease extended in 2010. Following the impeachment of the relatively pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia invaded Crimea, overthrew the elected autonomous government and claimed to annex it in 2014.
On 27 February 2014, unmarked Russian soldiers were deployed to the Crimean Peninsula in order to wrest control of it from Ukraine, triggering the Russo-Ukrainian War. This military occupation, which the Ukrainian government considers to have begun on 20 February, laid the foundation for the Russian annexation of Crimea on 18 March 2014. Under Russia, the Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea was replaced by the Republic of Crimea, though the legitimacy of the latter is scarcely recognized internationally.
