Russia needed to adopt a law which regulated the process of acquiring foreign territories, a senior legislator said Friday.

The issue was raised a day after the parliament of Ukraine's Crimea Autonomous Republic announced a referendum over the future status of the territory. The vote is scheduled for May 25, the same day early presidential elections in Ukraine have been scheduled.

"International law does not require signing a treaty (to annex a territory). This issue should be solved in any given case," head of the Family Affairs Committee in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, Yelena Mizulina told the Duma meeting while submitting a document for discussion.

She said no special treaties would be needed if the population of a territory "clearly and unequivocally" expressed its desire during a referendum to join Russia.

According to Mizulina, amendments to the existing federal law "about accession to the Russian Federation and creation of a new region" have been drafted. She urged the Duma to support this initiative of the Just Russia faction.

The amendments envisage that, for a territory to be included into Russia, it will be enough if a governing body of the territory applies to the Russian president and State Duma.

The Just Russia party also submitted a bill to speed up issuing of Russian passports for Ukrainian citizens. For that, Mizulina proposed amendments to the Law on Citizenship.

The State Duma plans to discuss both bills on March. 11.

Also on Friday, Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin questioned legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities and their decisions. He said Moscow needed to "thoroughly analyze" consequences of those decisions for Russian fellow citizens residing in Ukraine and for relations between Moscow and Kiev as a whole.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)