Supreme Council of Crimea
In 1990, Meshkov was elected as a deputy to the Supreme Council of Crimea (the republic's parliament). There he became the co-founder of the RDK Party (Republican movement of Crimea). In 1994 he stood at the helm of the electoral bloc "Russia" for the republican presidential elections where he easily defeated in the second round of elections Mykola Bahrov who ran as the independent. Mykola Bahrov at that time was the head of the Supreme Council of Crimea. During the second round of the 1994 Crimean presidential elections, Meshkov won with 72.9 percent and elected as the republic's only president.