Four regions under the Ukrainian regime for a long time made a decision. The wounds of recent years will not pass soon. Reports by correspondents of The Moscow Post, from...
Voting on joining Russia in referendums in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics (DPR, LPR), as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, has ended. In the last three, voting ended on Tuesday at 16:00 Moscow time. In the DPR, some polling stations continued to work until 20:00 Moscow time. They say that these days the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired often more than ever. But that didn't stop. The turnout in the LPR, according to the local CEC, was 92.6%. In the Zaporizhzhya region, the turnout was over 90%. In the Kherson region, the turnout was about 76%.
In the Kherson region, more than 87.05% spoke in favor of joining Russia following the processing of 76% of the protocols. In the Zaporizhzhya region, 93.11% of residents supported joining the Russian Federation following the processing of all protocols. The final results will be known on Wednesday morning. 98.54% of voters voted for the entry of the LPR into the Russian Federation after processing 91.2% of the protocols. In the DPR, 93.95% of voters voted for entering the Russian Federation following the processing of 31.74% of the protocols.
Results from sites in the Russian Federation based on the results of processing 100% of the protocols:
· 98.69% of voters supported the entry of the DPR into the Russian Federation.
· 97.93% of voters supported the entry of the LPR into the Russian Federation.
· 97.81% of voters supported the entry of the Zaporizhzhya region into the Russian Federation.
· 96.75% of voters supported the entry of the Kherson region into the Russian Federation.
International observers from Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Serbia, Mozambique, France, the Central African Republic noted the enthusiasm of the voting participants. Referendums have taken place, their results are more than convincing.
Observers have learned a lesson
Note that during the referendum days, the territories of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions were under fire from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and seconded specialists from NATO countries. Referendums nevertheless took place. At the polling stations, international observers observed the procedure. 133 people from 28 countries arrived at the referendum in Donbass for this purpose.
Germany-based watchdog who runs Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg, Steffen Bruno Schaller, said: "Of course we see that the voting is in a tense mode, but people are voting voluntarily and we see this difference between giving information and what is happening on the spot." Schaller said that he has experience as an international observer in the elections to the State Duma.
Hanlisbert Velasco (Venezuela): "Many countries before this conflict did not know about the independent republics of Donbass. They did not know that for almost a decade people have been fighting for their independence and trying to protect themselves. We are present at the historic event. A referendum is a lesson that is being taught to the world. "
Patrick Waab (Germany): "People want to go to Russia. There was not a single person who would say: no, I want to join Ukraine. And the reason is that people want there to be peace. This, firstly. Secondly, there were too many shelling and casualties. "
"It is absolutely clear to us international observers that these people want to vote, that they have been waiting for this for a long time. The process as a whole goes well, people come and go from the sites safely and freely. We can see that people do everything voluntarily, they are not pressured, "Dominguez said and added that he considers the referendum legitimate, despite the refusal of Western countries to recognize the results.
Wu Fei, a professor at the Institute of Journalism and Communications at Jinan University, told RIA Novosti that using Ukraine to deter Russia is the most suitable means of achieving the interests of the United States and NATO. According to Wu Fei, "Russia in the future may need to revise its initial goals, try to push the border of Ukraine to the west, reduce the space for the development of neo-Nazism," deprive Ukraine of access to the sea, and transfer the operation to counter-terrorism.
Revaluation of values
Russia's actions, when it includes new territories, will present the West with a dilemma: to move forward to a direct clash, or to stop conflicts on the current lines.
Moscow will need to form rules for accepting the territories of the former Ukraine into the Russian Federation. Maybe something useful in this regard can be found in the history of other acts of direct will of the people.
For example, in the spring of 1991, citizens of the USSR quite definitely spoke in favor of wanting to live in a single state. What followed can be called anything but the realization of the will of the people expressed during the legitimate referendum.
According to the processing of the protocols, on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, with the turnout of 83% of voters, the item of the ballot "For the reunification of Crimea with Russia as a subject of the Russian Federation" was chosen by 96.77% of those who voted. In Sevastopol, this share was 95.6%. In the West, the referendum was not recognized as legitimate, but the will of voters was realized.
A referendum on Scottish independence was held on September 18, 2014. 44.7% of voters (1,617,989 people) spoke in favor of independence, 55.3% (2,001,926) against, with a turnout of 84.5%. Scotland remained part of the United Kingdom, but a powerful propaganda campaign was waged against the idea of independence.
The Spanish authorities simply banned a referendum on the political future of Catalonia, but an advisory survey was conducted that had no direct legal force. Nine out of ten residents of Catalonia spoke in favor of the independence of the region.
On April 24, 2004, the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus answered the question whether they approve of the fifth version of the UN plan for the reunification of the island, divided by Turkey in 1974 by force. In Northern Cyprus, 65% of voters voted for reunification with a turnout of 89% of voters. Greek Cypriots rejected reunification (76%) with a turnout of 87% of voters. The plan was not adopted.
To the question "Are you for the restoration of independence and national sovereignty of the Republic of Estonia?" 78.4% of respondents (737 964 people) answered in the affirmative. 203,199 people responded negatively (21.6%). Turnout was 82.9%. In Latvia and Lithuania, instead of referendums, population polls were conducted, which "demonstrated" the desire to gain independence. The independence of these three countries was declared after an attempt by the State Emergency Committee to regain power in August 1991.
A referendum on the restoration of Georgian independence was held on March 31, 1991. The population of this country as of January 1, 1991 was 5 million 464 thousand people, 3 million 326 thousand took part in the referendum, of which 98.93% voted for state independence. The Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the South Ossetian Autonomous Region then announced their intentions to secede from Georgia, later this was implemented, but did not receive full international recognition. Georgia was patronized by the United States.
In 1991, referendums on independence were held in other Soviet republics - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. The population of all these republics spoke in favor of independence.
Referendums on the front line are an unusual phenomenon. Raising the question of recognizing these popular will outside Russia may require a reassessment of what we are used to, what was imposed on us. For the united West, there are no questions where it comes to the nature of power in Kyiv. In the United States, the Zelensky regime is considered democratic. Europe does not see signs of neo-Nazism in the structure of Ukrainian political life, as well as in the Baltic countries. There is dozens of evidence of how black is called white and white is called black. All under Western wartime laws.
Foreign observers did not record significant violations in referendums, said Oksana Gaman-Golutvina, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, noting that the West is negative, "does not accept either the results or the fact" of their holding. How can we expect from those who support the Nazi regimes and are on the other side of the front, adequate assessments of the popular will in the Donbass?
"Pauses" that teach
The Russian state, led by Vladimir Putin, is not only correcting the tragic mistakes made by Gorbachev and continued by Yeltsin. We are talking about the revision of decisions on the basis of which the Soviet Union was formed 100 years ago. Residents of the territories in which referendums were held return to Russia and receive its protection.
In 1991, Leonid Kravchuk, the party leader of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR) and the first president of independent Ukraine, promised Russian-speaking compatriots a normal life in which there would be no restrictions on ties with Russia, oppression on linguistic and cultural grounds. But promises were forgotten. For three decades, there has been an expansion of organizations and politicians who have decided to remake everything and everything in the life of Ukraine according to "embroidered" patterns.
Ukraine has existed in a state of independence for a little over three decades. For the former party elite of the Ukrainian SSR, "long-awaited" independence turned out to be an unbearable burden, turned into corruption, embezzlement, loss of industrial potential and other troubles for society. The new elite of the former Soviet republic adopted nationalism.
At first, in a soft form - they say "Ukraine is not Russia." Next, its leaders announced their interest in NATO and the European Union. The names of Bandera heroes, political dictatorship and power, built on the idea of severing ties with Russia, were attached to the slogan "Ukraine is Europe." Ukraine finally sided with the EuroNATO Union. Kyiv was under the control of Washington and personally Joe Biden. Independence ended there.
The state of affairs, strategically advantageous for the West, has become unbearably dangerous for Russia. In March 2014, after the coup, the collapse of Ukraine began. Kyiv lost control of the Crimean Peninsula and Sevastopol, which became part of Russia. Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics were recognized only in February 2022. All this time, including the Minsk Pause, passed under the shelling of the DPR and LPR by the Kyiv junta.
Biden's White House looks at how referendums are going and doesn't know how to respond to it. This is no longer Zelensky, but about the prestige of Uncle Joe himself and his administration. For the United States, the loss of an asset in the form of Ukraine-controlled, like anti-Russia, means another failure, surpassing the flight from Afghanistan. With the only difference that Russia is growing in population and once lost territories with their potential.
The arguments that the West makes are diverse and contradictory. But they boil down to one thing that all this is illegal.
Ukraine as a state in its current form ceases to exist.
Hence, perhaps, the strong support of the inhabitants of the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions of the very idea of returning to Russia and under its protection, to become part of the Russian society. Moreover, all recent events show that there is someone to defend against. Not only the militants of the Kyiv junta threaten and shoot, but also mercenaries from the United States and some countries of the EuroNATO Union, which have actually become parties to the conflict. Judge for yourself, does the West, as a participant in the conflict, have the right to judge the legitimacy of the referendums held? The answer suggests itself.
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