Old Wine in New Bottles: Latvia 1940 Compared with Crimea 2014
Journal: Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online
Year: 2024

In late February, 2014, strange bands of armed gunmen, with no signs of a distinctive emblem belonging to any army, started to appear on the roads and streets of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine. Later these ‘little green men’ began to seize government buildings in Crimea. Shortly afterwards, on 16 March 2014, the people of Crimea participated in an illegal referendum and voted overwhelmingly for their region to become a part of Russia. This vote was illegitimate, firstly as it was held under ho