As delivered by the Delegation of Ukraine
to the 1114th meeting of the Permanent Council,
04 October 2016
Mr. Chairman,
Ukraine strongly condemns the conduct of elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the seventh convocation on 18 September 2016 on the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which constitute an integral part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
These actions violate the legislation of Ukraine and the fundamental norms and principles of international law, including the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, as well as the UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262 “Territorial Integrity of Ukraine”.
The conduct of these elections de-legitimizes Russia's parliament, which consists of 450 members. The legislation stipulates that one half of the deputies are elected in accordance with single-mandate voting system as people cast their votes for specific candidates. This makes it easy to identify illegitimate members of the parliament elected in the occupied Crimea and ensure their non-recognition. There will be four of them.
However, another half of the parliament is elected on the proportional basis. The lists of voters were increased by forcing the residents of Crimea to automatic Russian citizenship through intimidation, repressions and violation of human rights. As a result, the voting in the occupied Crimea for federal party lists delegitimized the results of vote for 225 deputies.
Adding 4 deputies from the first half to 225 from the second half amounts to 229, making an illegitimate majority in the composition of the Duma.
In this regard the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in its Resolution, adopted on 20 September 2016, decided not to recognize as legitimate these parliamentary elections in Russia, their results and legal implications, and, respectively, the composition, powers, acts and decisions of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the seventh convocation.
We call upon consistency of the OSCE Chairmanship, the ODIHR and the delegations of the participating States in upholding the norms of international law and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. We call not to recognize the results of elections to the Russia’s State Duma in the part of voting in the illegally occupied Crimean peninsula.
It is necessary to take all measures to prevent the inclusion of MPs whose mandate has been illegitimised by the elections in the temporarily occupied Crimea to Russian parliamentary delegations to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and other international parliamentary bodies.
Ukraine expects as well that OSCE/ODIHR in its final report about the September Duma elections will provide a clear explanation of the reasons to refrain from observing the election process in Crimea and will give its clear assessment of the fact, that the voting in the illegally occupied Crimea affected the majority of parliamentarians of the State Duma.
It is our strong conviction that in their response to the illegal conduct by Russia of the elections on a part of Ukraine’s territory the OSCE Chairmanship, the OSCE PA, the ODIHR and all OSCE executive structures must be guided by the OSCE principles and commitments, as well as provisions of the UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262 “Territorial Integrity of Ukraine”.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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