I've been trying to understand the news re Ukraine and Crimea. Why was the referendum in Crimea regarded as illegal by Kiev, U S and E U? News programmes don't seem to explain this. Can anyone tell me the reason please?
As crimea is a part of Ukraine any referenda have to be sanctioned by the Ukrainian government and organised by their department that deals with elections to see that there is no fiddling. Since the referendum has been instigated and controlled by a foreign country that has no authority (other than lots of soldiers and guns) it cannot have any constitutional legitimacy.
Thank you jomifl. What you say makes a lot of sense. I wonder who did in fact instigate the referendum - presumably someone among the Russian speakimg people in Crimea.