Any state province or oblast can hold a referendum and succeed from a country and become its own country or join another country. That’s international law which is legally binding and it was created by the western nations. The “west” (i.e. CIA, Mi6, EU, WEF and State department) can scream and whine and not accept the results of a referendum but it’s an unintended “We the People” moment according to their own rules and they need to STFU.
One thing I get a chuckle out of here on FR with posters calling the referendums “fake” and implying that Russia will “manufacture” votes the way that democrats do here...:-)
These people in those Russian speaking areas “want out so bad they can taste it” and have been pressuring Russia to move quickly because that will provide permanent security for them.
It won’t be like Kharkov where Russia can just pull out if that suits them. Russia will be obligated to defend what will be their own territory.
A few weeks ago there was a funny video posted showing un unbelievable line of people trying to get into the Russian controlled part of Zaporozhye. They were stopped and questioned by Ukrainian security forces and kept saying they were just going there to pick up the parents, grandparents, whatever. But, their vehicles were piled high with their children, their pets and all of their belongings. It was so obvious that even the Western media who were there covering it were suggesting they were fleeing.
Article 280.1 (on public calls to action for the violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation).
Russia makes it illegal to even TALK about seceding from the Russian federation
it stands to briefly recall the Russian Constitution, which guarantees the right to peoples’ self-determination (Article 5). The Constitution also includes an entire chapter on Federation (chapter 3). But there is one small detail: the Constitution only addresses the question of being admitting to the Russian Federation. There is not a single line about the possibility, or even the right, to secede from it.
Russian lawmakers introduced a new article into the Criminal Code prohibiting calls for the violation of territorial integrity in 2014
Vladimir Zavarkin suggested in an emotional speech that a referendum be held on Karelia’s secession from Russia.
The basis for his sentence was the fact that “statements of a motivational character calling for the secession of the Republic of Karelia from the Russian Federation couched in ambiguous set of proposals” were identified in his speech.