ABSTRACT

This chapter will introduce the evolution and the contemporary form of the Russian interpretation of people’s right to self-determination under international law. It is argued that the current Russian legal position toward self-determination remains heavily influenced by the Soviet era. It is a combination of Soviet ethnofederalism and history of instrumentalizing self-determination for political purposes. However, after the appearance of the so-called Kosovo precedent in 2008, Russian legal position has started to display certain inconsistencies in relation to different cases of self-determination and to Russia’s own prior position. The chapter concludes that the Soviet legacy guides Russia to emphasize the self-determination bids of the predetermined territorial units, in relation to which, despite its official rhetoric calling for uniform solutions, it displays further inconsistencies.