Crimean presidential election, 1994

Last updated March 21, 2019

The only presidential elections were contested in the Republic of Crimea for the post of President of Crimea, at the time a republic within Ukraine. The office was created by the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea, the republic's unicameral parliament October 13, 1993. Elections were subsequently held on January 16, 1994 with the second round on January 30 since a two-round system was used to elect the President. The presidential elections in Crimea were one of the most important precedents of the Crimean crisis that laid the basis for the Ukrainian-Russian international relationship.

Crimea is a peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe that is almost completely surrounded by both the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast. It is located south of the Ukrainian region of Kherson, to which it is connected by the Isthmus of Perekop, and west of the Russian region of Kuban, from which it is separated by the Strait of Kerch though linked by the Crimean Bridge. The Arabat Spit is located to the northeast, a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to its west is Romania and to its south Turkey.

The President of the Republic of Crimea was the head of the state of the Republic of Crimea, Ukraine from February 16, 1994 to the time of its liquidation on March 17, 1995. The post was liquidated as it disagrees with the Constitution of Ukraine.

Ukraine, sometimes called the Ukraine, is a country in Eastern Europe. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Kiev. Ukrainian is the official language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religions in the country are Eastern Orthodoxy and Greek Catholicism. Ukraine is currently in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km² (233,062 sq mi), making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world.

Overview

The pro-Russian Yuriy Meshkov won the second round of voting with 72.9 percent of the vote.^[1]^[2] Some of the other candidates that showed interest, but not listed in the table below were Yevhen Isaev (Green Party of Crimea) and Natalia Vasilyeva (Sevastopol City Council deputy). The Crimean parliament refused to register the People's Movement of Ukraine's representative on November 18, 1993.^[3]

Yuri Alexandrovich Meshkov is a former Crimean politician and a leader of the pro-Russian movement in Crimea. Yuriy Meshkov served as the only President of Crimea from 1994 to 1995.

The People's Movement of Ukraine is a Ukrainian centre-right political party. Often it is simply referred to as the Movement. The party under the name Rukh was an observer member of the European People's Party (EPP) until 2013.

Background

Meshkov was able to remain in office until March 17, 1995 when the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine abolished the office of president.^[4] Two weeks thereafter the President of Ukraine temporarily re-subordinated the government of Crimea to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with reservation to appoint the Crimean prime-minister by the President of Ukraine. In light of that the parliament of Crimea appealed to both parliaments of Russia and Ukraine not to hurry in signing the friendship treaty without ignoring the interest of people of the peninsula.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada is composed of 450 deputies, who are presided over by a chairman (speaker). The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capital Kiev.

The President of Ukraine is the Ukrainian head of state. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. The president is directly elected by the citizens of Ukraine for a five-year term of office, limited to two terms consecutively.

At first the Russian government stated that the Crimean problem is the Ukrainian internal issues, implying that there are no intentions of the Russian government to intervene. Even the First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets who arrived to Kiev to sign an international agreement between Russia and Ukraine soon after the disestablishment of the presidential post in Crimea confirmed that it will not influence the ongoing negotiations between the two neighboring countries. State Duma, nevertheless, later issued its note of concern for the negotiations with Kiev which may jeopardize the stability in the region. Soon thereafter the President of the Russian Federation announced that the friendship treaty could not be signed, while the current Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev in the context of the situation in Crimea chose the following words:

Oleg Nikolaevich Soskovets is a Soviet, Kazakh and Russian politician.

Andrey Vladimirovich Kozyrev was the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation under President Boris Yeltsin, in office from October 1991 until January 1996. In his position he was credited with developing Russia's foreign policy immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union, although many in Russia have criticized him for being weak and not assertive enough in defending Russian interests in the face of the United States and NATO in places like Bosnia and Iraq. For this he took a lot of criticism from the nationalist politicians and parties. Kozyrev had graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) with a Ph.D. in history before joining the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1974, holding various positions in it before being appointed foreign minister.

“

...the use of direct military force might be necessary to protect our compatriots abroad.

”

^[5]

The Crimean question first surfaced in January 1992 when on the initiative of Vladimir Lukin the Russian parliamentarians were given a draft of resolution concerning the 1954 transfer of Crimea. The resolution was composed by the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations which he headed at that time and proposed to annul the decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The proposal was not addressed at that time to avoid any additional open confrontations (Civil war in Tajikistan, Nagorno-Karabakh War, Georgian Civil War, and others). When the issue of Crimea was raised again in 1994 together with the Black Sea Fleet, Lukin stated that his main intentions were to put the government of Ukraine in front of the dilemma either to surrender the Ukrainian ports and the Fleet or deal with questioning status of the Crimea, the invalidation of which he had intentions to pass in the Russian Parliament with the before mentioned resolution.

The transfer of the Crimean Oblast in 1954 was an administrative action of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union which transferred the government of the Crimean Peninsula from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian SSR.

Nagorno-Karabakh War armed conflict that took place in the late 1980s to May 1994

The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place in the late 1980s to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in a protracted, undeclared war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum, boycotted by the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh, was held, whereby most of the voters voted in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia began in a relatively peaceful manner in 1988; in the following months, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, resulting in claims of ethnic cleansing by both sides.

The Georgian Civil War comprised inter-ethnic and intranational conflicts in the regions of South Ossetia (1988–1992) and Abkhazia (1992–1993), as well as the violent military coup d'état of December 22, 1991 – December 31, 1993, against the first democratically elected President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his subsequent uprising in an attempt to regain power (1993).

Results

e • d **Summary of the 16 January and 30 January 1994 Crimea presidential election results**
Candidates — nominating parties	Votes first round	%	Votes second round	%
Yuriy Meshkov — Bloc "Russia"	557,226	38.50	1,040,888	72.92
Mykola Bahrov — (supported by Mejlis)	254,042	17.55	333,243	23.35
Serhiy Shuvainykov — Russian Party of Crimea	196,324	13.56
Leonid Hrach — Communist Party of Ukraine	176,330	12.80
Ivan Yermakov — Ukrainian president representative in Sevastopol	90,347	6.22
Volodymyr Verkoshansky — self-nomination	14,205	0.98
Total	1,288,474	100.00	1,374,131	100.00
Source:

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References

↑ Russians in the Former Soviet Republics by Pål Kolstø, Indiana University Press, 1995, ISBN 0253329175 (page 194)
↑ "New developments in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine" (PDF). Assembly of WEU. December 4, 2001. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
↑ Crimea: dynamics, challenges and prospects By Maria Drohobycky
↑ Laws of Ukraine . Verkhovna Rada law No. 93/95-вр: On the termination of the Constitution and some laws of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea . Adopted on 1995-03-17. (Ukrainian)
↑ Stern, Jessica Eve. Moscow Meltdown: Can Russia Survive. "International Security" 18, No.4 (spring 1994)

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[5_May_1992_in_Crimea-1] Russians in the Former Soviet Republics by Pål Kolstø, Indiana University Press, 1995, ISBN 0253329175 (page 194)

[2] "New developments in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine" (PDF). Assembly of WEU. December 4, 2001. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-07.

[3] Crimea: dynamics, challenges and prospects By Maria Drohobycky

[4] Laws of Ukraine . Verkhovna Rada law No. 93/95-вр: On the termination of the Constitution and some laws of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea . Adopted on 1995-03-17. (Ukrainian)

[5] Stern, Jessica Eve. Moscow Meltdown: Can Russia Survive. "International Security" 18, No.4 (spring 1994)

v t e Elections and referendums in Crimea
Parliamentary elections	1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014
Presidential elections	1994
Referendums	1991 1994 2014
See also Elections in Ukraine Referendums in Ukraine Elections in Russia