THE CRIMEAN PLATFORM WISHFUL THINKING

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has initiated the creation of the Crimean Platform. The Crimean Platform is to be launched during a summit on 23 August 2021 in Kyiv. The aim is to elaborate a long-term strategic vision of the de-occupation of Crimea, both at the national level and in the international arena. The National Security Council of Ukraine is working on a comprehensive de-occupation strategy. The Crimean Platform will become a foreign policy instrument of the de-occupation strategy. This flexible international format is aimed at consolidating international efforts and achieving synergy of intergovernmental, parliamentary, and expert levels. The ultimate goal of the platform is eventual de-occupation of Crimea and its return to Ukraine by peaceful means.
 

Main goals and activity areas

Participants of the Crimea Platform will deliberate the main common elements of non-recognition policy and come up with the memorandum/guiding principles drawing the common “red lines” in this regard. The participants of the Platform will abide by the guidelines, exchange information about potential breaches, elaborate preventive measures, use their diplomatic contacts to urge third countries to follow suit.

The following elements are to be discussed:

• a ban on the formal recognition of the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation;
• a ban on visits of official persons to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine) and any statements that may be interpreted as recognizing the change of their status;
• discouragement of attendance by the participating states’ nationals and entities of events in the occupied Crimea;
• a prohibition for foreign consular officers in the Russian Federation to perform any functions with respect to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine);
• introduction of a specific ‘Crimea clause’ in any new international documents with the Russian Federation excluding their application with respect to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine);
• state agencies should not invoke mutual legal assistance treaties with the Russian Federation in respect to the territory of Crimea;
• a ban on imports of goods originating from Crimea unless they have Ukrainian certificates of origin;
• a prohibition of any investments to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine);
• a ban on providing tourism services in Crimea as well as other services, enabling or supporting tourism in the temporarily occupied peninsula;
• a prohibition of trade in goods, technologies and services with companies from Crimea and Sevastopol as well as the Russian occupation authorities;  ban on provision of technical assistance, maintenance, insurance, financing, brokering, construction or engineering services related to all infrastructure, transportation, scientific projects in the occupied Crimea.

The participants of the Crimea Platform will work together on consolidation of existing restrictive measures and their enforcement. They will also discuss synchronisation of sanction lists and cooperation in monitoring application of sanctions in force and closing loopholes for their circumvention. The participants of the Crimea Platform will cooperate with a view to strengthening or expanding sanctions in response to:

• violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the temporarily occupied Crimea;
• violation of international humanitarian law (illegal “elections” and “referendums”, forceful conscription to the Russian armed forces, change of the demographic structure of Crimea etc.);
• militarisation of Crimea and adjacent waters of the Azov and Black Seas:
• embargo on sale of arms and related materiel, dual-use goods and technology, ban on provision of respective services;
• sanctions against Russian military enterprises involved in the development/modernisation of the Russian military forces and facilities in the occupied Crimea;
• illegal expropriation of Ukraine’s state and private enterprises;
• violations of prohibition on entering officially closed seaports and airports in the occupied Crimea;
• illegal deep-water drilling and oil and gas production in the occupied Black Sea waters;
• illegal development of infrastructure in the occupied Crimea.

The participants of the Crimea Platform will consider joint action on countering militarisation of Crimea and Russia’s military expansion on Europe’s southern flank, posing growing security and hybrid threats to wider regional security: Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Azov-Black seas region, the Mediterranean, the Middle East. The participants of the Crimea Platform will discuss countering the activities of the Russian Federation that undermine the principle of freedom of navigation, disrupt supply chains and thus adversely affect, in particular, the stability of international food security. To achieve these goals the participants will combine the expertise and diplomatic efforts through following steps:

• supporting the establishment of the annual Security Forum for Azov, Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean and actively participating in its activities;
• conducting regular joint expert events within the framework of the Crimea Platform to achieve synergy of analytic/monitoring capacity and to provide extensive information for policy/decision makers;
• engaging in dialogue on the needs and ways to enhance the NATO presence in the region;
• putting the freedom of navigation challenge in the Azov-Black sea region high on international agenda;
• supporting decisions of international institutions deploring disrupting activities of the Russian Federation in the region.

The participants of the Crimea Platform will take joint action to enhance monitoring and exchange of information about the violations of human rights and norms of international humanitarian law; protect Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identity as well as cultural heritage in the temporarily occupied Crimea. To this end, the participants will consider:

• introducing a mechanism of prompt and coordinated reaction of states and international organisations to respective serious violations;
• ensuring the high level of publicity for cases of serious human rights violation on political level and in the media as a mean of protection of victims and prevention of further violations;
• enhancing monitoring of the situation to provide decision-makers with the necessary data on application of restrictive measures on those responsible for serious violations of human rights and norms of international humanitarian law;
• devising ways to protect cultural heritage sites located in the temporary occupied Crimea using the UNESCO tools and mechanisms.

The participants of the Crimea Platform will engage in enhanced monitoring of the long-term environmental threats to the Black Sea region and beyond, posed by the activities of the Russian occupation authorities, including:

• destruction of nature reserves;
• illegal exploitation of industrial facilities;
• use of waste of potential chemical and nuclear hazard in major construction projects, endangering the waters of the Black Sea;
• realisation of major infrastructural projects without proper environmental risk assessment;
• renovation and modernisation of Soviet-era nuclear storage facilities.

New infrastructure projects such as construction of the Kerch Bridge and the Tavryda highway have left an excessive environmental footprint on their immediate surroundings. For one the bridge affected the natural flow of waters between the Azov and Black seas, environmental consequences of which are yet to be assessed. In the course of the construction of the Tavryda highway millions of trees and bushes were cleared thus causing huge damage to the delicate Crimean fauna. Russian authorities use sands polluted with toxic radioactive waste from a metallurgical plant near Kerch, which presents a danger to the environment not only in Crimea but also in the wider Black Sea region. This issue definitely merits a thorough consideration by the international community.

Ukraine considers creating an Investment fund for the regions along the administrative line with Crimea. The task of the fund will be to mitigate socio-economic damage resulted from the occupation of Crimea, to preserve the links with the citizens of Ukraine in the occupied territories, foster development of economic and social infrastructure of communities of regions alongside the administrative line, meet the needs of the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), develop green economy and create a model basis for future reintegration of Crimea. This will include investments in:

• social infrastructure (developing medical facilities, administrative services, housing for IDPs);
• cultural and education needs;
• tourism infrastructure;
• transport infrastructure;
• projects to foster green economy.

An important caveat

Ukrainian activists and Western leaders like to talk about returning Crimea to Ukraine. However, the reality is that such a move would be against the will of the local population. The union with Russia enjoys massive support among the Crimean population. Crimea will never be returned to Ukraine,  this will never happen. Not only would it be politically suicidal for any Russian government to attempt such a thing, but the population of Crimea itself would oppose it, and one can imagine that, if pushed, might do so violently. Western leaders are fooling themselves if they imagine that it can ever be reversed. Returning Crimea to Ukraine would mean forcing people to live in a country in which they don’t want to live. Not only is it difficult to see how this could be done, but it’s also impossible to see how it could be justified in terms of the human rights that Western leaders love to cite. When Ukrainian activists and Western politicians claim that the residents of Crimea are “living under occupation,” they mistake the experience of some for the experience of all. The majority of Crimeans do not experience Russian rule as oppressive, alien, or unwelcome. Instead, they are reasonably happy to be living in Russia.

Russian constitutional amendment

“The Russian Federation ensures protection of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Actions (excluding delimitation; demarcation and re-demarcation of the state border of the Russian Federation with bordering states) aimed at removing a part of the Russian Federation’s territory, as well as calls to such actions, are not permitted”. This was written so that nobody could seriously insert an amendment into legislation according to ward Crimea would be handed [sic] to Ukraine.  It was done so that not one state body, including the President or parliament, or the government, could seriously hold negotiations, for example, on the return of Crimea to Ukraine”.