How international law treats Crimea joining Russia

Western countries have condemned as illegal any moves to make the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea part of Russia through an upcoming regional referendum organised following a military intervention by Moscow.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has dubbed the possible move "an annexation".

But Russia insists that international law is being respected and President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russian forces have intervened in Crimea.

Here is what legal experts say:

"It is an unresolved issue in international law as two principles collide: the right to self-determination and a state's right to its territorial integrity.

"That was precisely the problem in Kosovo," said Sigmar Stadlmeier, the director of the international law department at the University of Linz in Austria.

Crimea's pro-Russian parliament cited Kosovo's controversial precedent when it declared the region's independence on March 11.

The parliament said that Crimea's declaration of independence was "based on the United Nations charter and other international instruments concerning the right of peoples to self-determination."

It also referred to an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice in the Hague which ruled that Kosovo's earlier unilateral declaration had not violated international law.

But Kosovo's declaration of independence had made clear that it represented "a special case" and "not a precedent for any other situation" as well as also prohibiting the new state from joining any other country.

Independence was being proclaimed after "years of violence" against the Albanian population, the declaration said, meaning the situation differed from the crisis in Crimea where no attacks on the Russian community have been recorded.

In 1994, Russia, the United States and Great Britain signed the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing "the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine" in exchange for Kiev's consent to eliminate all Soviet-era nuclear weapons on its territory.

"The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the charter of the United Nations," the document reads.

The memorandum guarantees Ukraine's territorial integrity in the event of external aggression, said Aslan Abashidze, the head of the international law faculty at Moscow's Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship university.

"But when it comes to the self-determination of peoples, that refers us back to the decision of the International Court of Justice," he said.

For the European Union and United States, there is no doubt that Russia has militarily intervened in Crimea - in a clear violation of the Budapest Memorandum.

Putin has insisted that the troops that operate in Crimea - without any insignia on their uniforms - are "local self-defence groups", not Russian soldiers.

From the Kremlin's point of view, there is no Russian military intervention in Crimea, and no violation of Russia's international undertakings under the Budapest Memorandum.

Putin's denials have not convinced Western leaders as repeated evidence shows that the soldiers and armoured vehicles that have taken control of government buildings and surrounded Ukrainian military bases in Crimea since February 27 belong to the Russian armed forces.

A senior Russian lawmaker, Leonid Slutsky, admitted this week that Russian forces had occupied Crimea to protect against armed attacks from Kiev. - AFP