Moscow's sham referendums: Putin mocks international law

Russia under Putin is perverting the international order and making a mockery of international law.

It is true that the law is not infrequently broken, including by major Western powers.

However, in recent decades there have hardly been such flagrant violations of the agreed principles of coexistence between states and thus also between people as the Moscow regime is doing now: the prohibition of violence, the territorial integrity of Ukraine, its state sovereignty and the Ukrainian right of self-determination are being violated people - and thus the rights of the people.

The accusations range from genocide and crimes against humanity to serious war crimes, and are unrivaled in recent history and have already called the International Criminal Court and national prosecutors into action.

Such violations of international law are unacceptable and must be atoned for.

Of course, it should also be noted that even Putin is trying to provide legal justifications, which he has in common with other tyrants.

He invoked the right to self-defence, the protection of one's own nationals abroad and recalled NATO's Kosovo war as an alleged precedent.

Putin indulges in extinction fantasies

And now, as in 2014 in the annexed Crimea, Russia has held "referendums" to give the violent acquisition of territory a legal veneer.

So while Putin and his propagandists expressly deny Ukraine's right to be its own nation and indulge in fantasies of extinction, some of which are even put into practice, they try to justify themselves, use topoi of international law and want to use the votes of the signal to the world that people are exercising their right to self-determination here.

But anyone who is serious about the right of peoples to self-determination must let freedom prevail.

It is up to Ukraine to decide its fate.

Incidentally, this does not rule out a change of territory.

In free decision and within the framework of the international order.

As important as boundaries are, they are drawn by people.

The existence of states is an essential pillar of the post-war order.

But no people can be kept in a state structure against their will in the long run.

The unification of the two German states, but also the separation of Czechs and Slovaks are examples of peaceful change based on the right to self-determination.

assassination and expulsion

Of course, this right is not to be equated with a right to secession, like a right to secession from an existing state association.

The right to self-determination can also be seen in autonomy regulations.

The decisive factor is ultimately the reaction of the international community.

Therefore, the response to Putin's attempts to legitimize his land grab must be unequivocal.

As soon as Russia annexed Crimea, astonishing things could be heard, especially in Germany.

Historically, it belongs to Russia and is mainly inhabited by Russians, which the vote at the time only confirmed.

Even if historically and demographically true, a referendum in the shadow of tanks is never a free vote.

And even if the annexation of Crimea was violent but bloodless, it was a mockery of the right to self-determination.

There was never a free vote and, moreover, no genocidal subjugation of the Russians there that would have justified a comparison with Kosovo.

This is especially true today.

The targeted murder and expulsion of residents undermines any referendum worthy of the name.

It's part of Ukraine's territory, which Russia wants to incorporate.

Without the will of the affected people and peoples, there can no longer be any changes to the area.

Russia is also learning this in other ways.

The peoples within his state also have the right to self-determination.

They too must not be enslaved.

The unrest that followed Putin's mobilization may only be a harbinger of a renewed triumph of the right to self-determination.

The Kosovo war, which Putin likes to initiate, or America's military interventions, some of which are rightly criticized, were not aimed at annexations and the establishment of foreign rule.

If (not only) Putin's empire begins to crumble, it is ultimately because self-determination and democratic will are stronger than weapons in the long term.