Nothing, especially the Budapest Memorandum, prevents Belarus from recognizing Crimea as Russian region, an informed source in Moscow told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th August, 2021) Nothing, especially the Budapest Memorandum, prevents Belarus from recognizing Crimea as Russian region, an informed source in Moscow told Sputnik.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said earlier this week that he would "recognize Crimea" when "the last oligarch in Russia begins to supply products there." At the same time, according to the Belarusian leader, his hands are "untied," so he could step over the Budapest Memorandum.
"I think that nothing prevents the recognition of the Russian ownership of Crimea. Certainly not the Budapest Memorandum," the source said.
This treaty was signed in 1994 when Ukraine joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), he recalled.
"The idea was that the countries of the nuclear 'five' pledged not to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and respect its sovereignty in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Final Act of the CSCE," the source said.
"Unfortunately, these principles were violated in February 2014 by three of the five nuclear powers. The United States and the United Kingdom openly supported the anti-constitutional coup on the Kiev Maidan, and France, which together with Germany and Poland acted as the guarantor of the agreement between the authorities and the opposition, did nothing for its compliance," he stressed.
The context of the Budapest Memorandum does not mean that Russia and the residents of Crimea should have recognized the racist neo-Nazi regime that took root in Kiev after the coup," he added.
The reunification of Crimea with Russia came as the result of a March 2014 referendum, where nearly 97% of those who voted backed the initiative. Despite the vote, Ukraine still considers the peninsula to be part of its territory, referring to it as temporarily occupied. Moscow insists that Crimean residents decided to rejoin Russia through a democratic procedure in compliance with international law. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue of the peninsula's territorial belonging is "historically closed."
