If Western countries rule out referendums, why is Russia annexing the occupied Ukrainian territories?
Russian President Vladimir Putin reviews naval troops as he attends the main naval parade marking Russian Navy Day, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on July 31. (Photo: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images)
Western nations and leaders have dismissed them as a “farce”, but Russia is pressing ahead with referendum votes by annexing four occupied Ukrainian territories in a ceremony on Friday.
Illegal “votes” are contrary to international law, but there are concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use annexation as a way to frame the current Ukrainian counteroffensive as an attack on Russia itself and escalate the war.
According to former US ambassador Kurt Volker, Putin will use the annexation to maneuver Russia’s more aggressive future strategy as a self-defense strategy.
“The [Putin] he is trying to create a situation where he is claiming that now that they are an integral part of Russian territory, he is engaging in self-defense by defending these territories, and thus also implying that he is perhaps going to use nuclear weapons in defense own, which is part of their doctrine,” Volker told CNN.
“I think this is hype, following hype, following hype, and even his own military and his own elites probably don’t believe it, but it’s what he’s trying to orchestrate.”
Although US officials have seen no indication that Russia is planning to use nuclear weapons anytime soon, they are more concerned regarding that possibility now than they were six or seven months ago, an official confirmed to CNN this week.
Volker himself is skeptical regarding the use of nuclear weapons, given the “devastating” consequences the Russian military would face in response.
Russia never expected that the referendum on the occupied territories would be accepted by the world community, according to the director general of the Russian International Affairs Council.
Andrey Kortunov believes that, given the similar international response to the Crimean referendum in 2014, Moscow is rather looking inward to generate a positive response from the Russian population and validate its continuation of the conflict.
“Even Russia’s closest partners and allies were hesitant to acknowledge the change in Crimea’s legal status,” Kortunov told CNN.
“I suspect that his main objective [de Putin] would be to get some kind of recognition from your internal audience. It is not clear whether the Russians are so eager to see the country’s territory enlarged under these circumstances, because of course the price they have to pay for it is quite high. But I can imagine that in the Kremlin they have the patriotic feelings of the Russian population, and they believe that this acceptance of new regions in the Russian Federation would help the leadership to maintain a high approval rating, and also help society to accept the costs associated with the special military operation”.
