ABSTRACT
Speaking in Sevastopol in Crimea, President Vladimir Putin on the 12 May 2012 called on
all countries ‘to respect the right of Russians to self-determination’ (BBCWorld News, 12
May 2014). This came a few weeks after he had backed and helped to organise the plebis-
cite in Crimea (Hill & White, 2014, p. 26). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia
has on several occasions, encouraged referendums on self-determination in areas with a
large number of Russian speakers, such as in Abkhazia in 1999, in Transnistria in 1995,
2003 and 2006 and in South Ossetia in 2001, 2006 and 2011-and arguably in Eastern
Ukraine in the Spring of 2014 (Hill & White, 2014, p. 26). Yet, at other times, this prin-
cipled commitment to ‘the self-determination of the people’ has been less forthcoming.
Russia-to name but one example-was less than enthusiastic about the independence
referendum in Tartarstan in 1992 (Giuliano, 2011, p. 122).
