Russian Crimea reunification analogous to German reunification in 1990 - Duma chairman
YALTA. Feb 5 (Interfax) - Crimea's reunification with Russia is as historically and legally just as was East Germany's reunification with West in 1990, says Russian State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin.
"I view it as legally just that East Germany became part of West Germany. It is just both from the historical and legal viewpoints. It is also absolutely just and right that Crimea has again become part of the Russian Federation. I repeat, this is both just historically and absolutely correct from a legal point of view," Naryshkin said at an international conference marking the 70th anniversary of the 1945 Yalta Agreements on Thursday.
This is also as legally substantiated as the reunification of Alsace, with its capital Strasbourg, and France following WWII, Naryshkin said. "Nobody argues this, and everyone is of the view that this is just from the legal point of view," he said.
In making judgments about Crimea's reunification with Russia, "what counts most is the desire of the Crimean residents to be part of the Russian Federation," he said.
"As concerns those Western politicians simply turning a blind eye to the results of the March referendum, in which 97% of the residents voted for Crimea's reunification with Russia, human rights are not a fundamentally value for them but some instrument in a political game and in political affairs," he said.