Politics of Crimea

The politics of Crimea today is that of the Republic of Crimea on one hand, and that of the federal city of Sevastopol on the other, within the context of the largely unrecognised annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in March 2014.

This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of Crimea
Autonomous Republic of Crimea /
Republic of Crimea

Republic of Crimea (within Russia) since 2014

Autonomous Republic of Crimea (within Ukraine)
See also
Political status of Crimea
Politics of Russia
Politics of Ukraine

The ousting of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution initiated a chain of events that culminated in a referendum in Crimea on whether it should rejoin Russia. Days after the official results revealed overwhelming support for the proposal, Russia signed a Treaty of Accession with the self-declared independent Republic of Crimea that annexed Crimea to the Russian Federation. While the Russian Federation both claims and administers the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as two of its federal subjects, Ukraine continues to assert that Crimea is an integral part of its territory.

Institutions
Main article: Constitution of the Republic of Crimea
See also: Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea

The Constitution of the Republic of Crimea is the basic law of the Republic of Crimea within the Russian Federation. It was ratified on 11 April 2014 and, de facto, replaced the previous Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea that was repealed by the Crimean status referendum.[1] The Russian constitution was updated to list the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as the 84th and 85th Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation.

Parliament of Crimea
Main article: State Council of Crimea

The 75-seat State Council of Crimea is the legislative branch of the Republic of Crimea. Elections are conducted under a system of mixed-member proportional representation, with 25 single-member constituencies and 50 part-list seats. At the 2014 Crimean parliamentary election, United Russia won 70 seats, including all 25 single-member constituencies, with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia winning 5 seats.

Before 2014, the 100-seat legislative branch of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was called the Supreme Council of Crimea. This parliament had no right of legislative initiative.[2] It was responsible for appointing the Council of Ministers. Following the decision of the Ukrainian parliament to dissolve the supreme council of Crimea in March 2014, the Supreme Council decided to rename itself as the State Council of Crimea, and to continue as the parliament of Crimea.[3]

Government of Crimea
Main article: Head of the Republic of Crimea
See also: Prime Minister of Crimea

The Head of the Republic of Crimea is the highest office holder within the Republic of Crimea. This position replaced the post of Prime Minister of Crimea which is the head of the Council of Ministers according to the Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

After Russia's 2014 annexation most Crimean public officials weren't replaced.[4]

Judiciary
Further information: Judiciary of Russia

The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature branches and the responsibility of the national authorities.

In Russia, for serious and specific crimes (murder, kidnapping, rape with aggravating circumstances, child trafficking, gangsterism, large-scale bribery, treason, terrorism, public calls for violent change in the constitutional system or for the seizure of power, and select other crimes against the state), the accused have the option of a jury trial consisting of 12 jurors, who must be 25 years old, legally competent, and without a criminal record.[5] In Ukraine, "jury trials" have 2 judges and 3 jurors,[6] but there is confusion over whether or not these are jurors or lay judges.[7][8][9] Russian juries are similar to common law juries, and unlike lay judges, in that they sit separately from the judges and decide questions of fact alone while the judge determines questions of law.[10] (Russia used jury trials from 1864-1917, reintroduced the jury trial in 1993, and extended it to another 69 regions in 2003;[11] Ukraine's first "jury trial" ended in October 2013 in Sumy.[6])

Administrative divisions
Main article: Administrative divisions of Crimea

The Republic of Crimea, just as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, is subdivided into a total of 25 regions: 14 raions (districts) and 11 city municipalities. Though the City of Sevastopol is located on the Crimean peninsula, it is administratively separately from the Republic of Crimea as a federal city. The capital of the Republic of Crimea is the City of Simferopol, located in the interior of the peninsula.

Elections and referendums

Under Russian supervision

Russian legislative election, 2016
Main article: 2016 Russian legislative election

The most recent election across Crimea was the Russian legislative election on 18 September 2016. Turnout, at 49.1% was slightly ahead of that for Russia as a whole which was only 47.8%. United Russia was the most supported political party in Crimea, achieving 72.8% of the vote.

Crimean parliamentary election, 2014
Main article: 2014 Crimean parliamentary election

The latest parliamentary elections in Crimea were held in 2014.

Crimean Status Referendum, 2014
Main article: 2014 Crimean status referendum

The referendum, held in 2014, concerned whether Crimea should declare independence and seek to join Russia.

Under Ukrainian supervision

Crimean parliamentary election, 2010
 Summary of the 31 October 2010 Supreme Council of Crimea election results[12]
Parties Party list votes Party list % Swing (party list) % Mandates won on party list Constituencies won Swing (in mandates)
Party of Regions 357030 48,93% +19,54% 32 48 +4
Communist Party of Ukraine 54172 7,42% +1,15% 5 -4
Qurultai-Rukh 51253 7,02% +0,47% 5 -3
Soyuz 38514 5,28% -1,47% 3 2 -5
Russian Unity 29343 4,02% 3
Strong Ukraine 26515 3,63% 2
People's Party 4563 0,63%
Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine 12614 1,73% -7
Party of Pensioners of Ukraine 11133 1,53%
Batkivschyna 19589 2,68% -3,62 -8
Front for Change 8281 1,13%
Svoboda 1361 0,19%
Against all Invalid ballots 57552 7.89%
Invalid ballots 21794 -1.43%
Total 997,575 100% 50 50

Crimean parliamentary election, 2006
 Summary of the 26 March 2006 Supreme Council of Crimea election results
Parties Votes % Mandates
Bloc "For Yanukovych!" (Блок "За Януковича!") 324,710 32.55 44
Soyuz (Союз) 76,143 7.63 10
Electoral Bloc of Kunitsyn (Блок Куніцина) 75,391 7.63 10
Communist Party of Ukraine (Комуністична партія України) 65,341 6.55 9
Qurultai-Rukh (Курултай-Рух) 62,448 6.26 8
Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc (Блок Юлії Тимошенко) 60,153 6.03 8
People's Opposition Bloc of Natalia Vitrenko (Блок Наталії Вітренко) 49,579 4.97 7
Opposition Bloc "Ne Tak" (Опозиційний блок "НЕ ТАК!") 30,825 3.09 4
Lytvyn's People's Bloc (Народний блок Литвина) 19,153 1.92 -
Bloc Our Ukraine (Блок Наша Україна)
  • 6 parties
 12,369 1.24 -
Socialist Party of Ukraine (Соціалістична партія України) 9,576 0.96 -
Pora! (ПОРА!) 1,895 0.19 -
Against all 33,569 20.98 -
Total 997,575 100.0 100

Crimean presidential election, 1994
 Summary of the 16 January and 30 January 1994 Crimea presidential election results
Candidates — nominating parties Votes first round % Votes second round %
Yuriy Meshkov — Bloc "Russia" 557,226 38.50 1,040,888 72.92
Mykola Bahrov — (supported by Mejlis) 254,042 17.55 333,243 23.35
Serhiy Shuvainykov — Russian Party of Crimea 196,324 13.56
Leonid Hrach — Communist Party of Ukraine 176,330 12.80
Ivan Yermakov — Ukrainian president representative in Sevastopol 90,347 6.22
Volodymyr Verkoshansky — self-nomination 14,205 0.98
Total 1,288,474 100.00 1,374,131 100.00
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See also

References
  1. "Crimean lawmakers approve new pro-Russian constitution". Jurist.org. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  2. The Crimea wants to protect majority principle, Den (7 October 2003)
    Crimea prepares amendments to Constitution Archived 12 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, ForUm (21 January 2013)
  3. Verkhovna Rada Autonomous Republic of Crimea Archived 23 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Rada.crimea.ua. Retrieved on 19 March 2014.
  4. Dreams in Isolation: Crimea 2 Years After Annexation, The Moscow Times (18 March 2016)
  5. Terrill, Richard J. (2009). World Criminal Justice Systems: A Survey (7 ed.). Elsevier. p. 439. ISBN 978-1-59345-612-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  6. "First 'jury trial' in Ukraine ends with an acquittal". Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. 29 October 2013.
  7. "In Ukraine, scales of justice often imbalanced". Kyiv Post. Reuters. 9 April 2012.
  8. "Role of jury in Ukraine". Kyiv Post. 1 June 2011.
  9. "Why Ukraine still has no jury trials". Kyiv Post. 16 June 2011.
  10. Terrill 2009, p. 439.
  11. Terrill 2009, pp. 438-439.
  12. Regions Party gets 80 of 100 seats on Crimean parliament, Interfax Ukraine (11 November 2010)
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