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The Republic of Crimea was the interim name of a polity on the Crimean peninsula from the dissolution of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1992 to the abolition of the Crimean Constitution by the Ukrainian Parliament in 1995. This period was one of conflict with the Ukrainian government over the levels of autonomy that Crimea enjoyed in relation to Ukraine, and links between Crimea and the Russian Federation.
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Following Soviet victory in the Civil War and establishment of the new Soviet administrative units, Crimea was granted Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic status in 1921 as part of the Soviet korenizatsiia policy for Crimean Tatars. It was meant to grant a degree of autonomy for national minorities within much larger Soviet republics.[1] After World War II the Soviet government accused Crimean Tatars of alleged crimes during the war and had them deported in 1945. Without a national minority (of Tatars),[clarification needed] Crimea was stripped of its autonomous republic status and became the Crimean oblast of the Russian SFSR.[2]
In February 1954 the Crimean oblast was transferred to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[3] As part of Ukraine it retained its oblast status until January 1991, when the Crimean sovereignty referendum was held to increase Crimean autonomy within Ukraine by re-establishing the Crimean ASSR and approved by 94%[4] of voters on a turnout above 80%.[5] In September 1991 the Crimean Parliament declared the territory to be a sovereign constituent part of Ukraine.[2] However, in the all-Ukrainan referendum in December 1991, the Crimean people agreed with Act of the Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine, which states, that Ukraine is sovereign and indivisible , from which immediately follows non-sovereignty of any part of Ukraine, including Crimea.
In August 1991, Yuriy Meshkov established the Republican Movement of Crimea, which was registered on 19 November,[6] to revive the republican status of the region and its sovereignty. With the help of the Black Sea Fleet administration, in February 1992 the movement initiated the gathering of signatures for a referendum for Crimea in the new Soviet Union.[7]
On 26 February 1992, the Crimean parliament changed the official name from "Crimean ASSR" to "Republic of Crimea". Then on 5 May, it proclaimed self-government[8][4][9] and twice enacted a constitution that the Ukrainian Parliament and government deemed to be inconsistent with Ukraine's constitution.[10] In June 1992, the parties reached a compromise, that Crimea would have considerable autonomy but remain part of Ukraine.[11]
At first Crimean authorities attempted to claim that it was a sovereign republic, albeit with a relationship with Ukraine. On 5 May 1992, the Crimean legislature declared conditional independence,[1][12] but a referendum to confirm the decision was never held, amid opposition from Kyiv.
On 17 December 1992, the office of the Ukrainian presidential representative in Crimea was created. This led to a wave of protests. Among the protesters that created the unsanctioned rally were the Sevastopol branches of the National Salvation Front, the Russian Popular Assembly, and the All-Crimean Movement of the Voters for the Republic of Crimea.[13]
In February 1994 the Ukrainian Parliament issued an ultimatum to Crimea, which had just elected the pro-Russian Meshkov, giving it a month to harmonise its laws with Ukraine.[14] Meshkov, however, tried to institute a number of symbolic measures, such as harmonising the time with Russia rather than Ukraine.[15]
Russian politicians had from the time of Ukraine's independence questioned the 1954 transfer of Crimea, including prominent politicians such as mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov[16] and Vladimir Zhirinovsky.[17] In October 1991 Russian Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, on a visit to Kyiv, claimed Russian control and ownership of the Black Sea fleet, based in Sevastopol, and, indirectly, Russian sovereignty over the whole Crimean Peninsula.[18] In April 1992 a similar resolution claiming Crimea was passed by the Russian Federation parliament. The Crimean Parliament's choice of flag in September 1992 was seen as mimicking the Russian tricolor.[19]
The status of Sevastopol, due to its strategic importance as the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, remained disputed between Ukraine and Russia, with the rogue Russian Parliament staking a claim for Sevastopol in 1993.[20] On 11 December 1992, the President of Ukraine called the attempt of "the Russian deputies to charge the Russian parliament with a task to define the status of Sevastopol as an 'imperial disease'".[13]
In April 1993, during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, the Russian Parliament proposed to support a referendum on Crimean independence and include the republic as a separate entity in the Commonwealth of Independent States, an offer that was later withdrawn.[19] After Boris Yeltsin won his struggle with the Russian Parliament the Russian stance towards Ukraine changed. Yeltsin refused to meet with the Crimean President, and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin stated that Russia had no claim on Crimea.[14]
In 1994, the legal status of Crimea as part of Ukraine was backed up by Russia, who pledged to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine in a memorandum signed in 1994, also signed by the US and UK.[21][22]
On 30 January 1994, Yuriy Meshkov was elected as President of Crimea on a pro-Russian platform against the favoured candidate of the local establishment, Nikolai Bagrov.[1] Despite then winning a referendum on further autonomy,[23] Meshkov quickly ran into conflicts with parliament.[6] On 8 September, the Crimean parliament degraded the President's powers from the head of state to the head of the executive power only, to which Meshkov responded by disbanding parliament and announcing his control over Crimea four days later.[24]
Ukraine decided to intervene. On 21 September 1994 the Ukrainian Parliament renamed the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialistic Republic as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,[25] and a week later the new Ukrainian President named Anatoliy Franchuk as the Prime Minister of Crimea.[26] On 17 March 1995, the Ukrainian parliament abolished the Crimean Constitution of 1992, all the laws and decrees contradicting those enacted by Kyiv, removed Meshkov as President of Crimea and abolished the office itself.[27][28] After this Ukrainian National Guard troops entered Meshkov's residence,[29] disarmed his bodyguards and put him on a plane to Moscow.[30]
On 31 March Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma issued a decree that subordinated the Crimean government to the Ukrainian Cabinet and that gave the Ukrainian President the power to appoint the Prime Minister of Crimea.[31] Crimea's status of being subordinate to Kyiv was confirmed eventually by the remaining Crimean authorities.
From June until September 1995, Kuchma governed Crimea under a direct presidential administration decree.[9] Crimea (with the exception of the city of Sevastopol) was designated an Autonomous Republic in the Ukrainian Constitution of 1996.[32] After an interim constitution, the 1998 Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was ratified, changing the territory's name to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.[33]
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