Russian lower house ratifies treaty on taking Crimea

Russia’s lower house of parliament on Thursday ratified the treaty incorporating Crimea into Russian territory, in defiance of the international community’s insistence that the peninsula is part of Ukraine, with just one deputy voting against.

The vote in the State Duma lower house was the penultimate legislative hurdle for the treaty, which was signed on Tuesday by President Vladimir Putin and Crimea’s leaders. The Duma also approved a new law on the absorption of Crimea into Russia.

The treaty and law still need to be rubber-stamped by the upper house Federation Council on Friday. However the Kremlin has said that it considers Crimea part of Russia since the signing of the treaty on Tuesday.

Out of 446 deputies voting, 445 voted to approve Russia’s taking of Crimea and just one against, Ilya Ponomarev of the A Just Russia Party. Four deputies were absent from the 450-seat Duma.

After making his highly symbolic vote against, Ponomarev published a detailed and impassioned explanation of his move on his Live Journal blog.

“Today Russia has made a huge mistake which could prove tragic for the brotherly Russian and Ukrainian peoples, for all of Slavic unity and for the whole system of international relations,” he said.

“Future generations will pay for mistakes that are made now,” he said.

Ponomarev explained that he was not opposed to the idea of Russia taking the mainly Russian-speaking peninsula but that the process had happened too fast.

He said it would have been right to have first recognised Crimea’s independence “and then wait a bit for things to calm down and convince everyone that this is not a Russia aggression… and then take the next step.”

He said huge numbers of people in the Russian authorities, foreign ministry and security services understood the danger of the hurried move “but are scared of expressing their opinion”.

A Just Russia is one of three so-called opposition parties in the State Duma but is usually staunchly pro-Kremlin. However it is the only party with a handful of MPs like Ponomarev who are broadly sympathetic to the protest movement against Putin.