Ukrainian crisis and threats to the territorial integrity in the Russian Federation

Political crisis in Ukraine has multiple and profound implications on regional and even global security. Russia as one of the leading external actors in this crisis and, simultaneously, the closest neighbor of Ukraine finds itself greatly affected by all the specter of those consequences. One of the most troubling implications in this connection relates to territorial integrity of the Russian Federation which may be seriously threatened by ongoing turbulence. This threat arises from dilemma: which of the two founding principles of international relations, self-determination or territorial integrity, should have priority in settlement of the conflicts. Taking into account that no international legal document gives an unambiguous answer to this question, the strongest and the most influential actors may feel free to voluntarily invoke any of the two of a case-by-case basis. This prerogative was by default assumed by the US as their sole privilege as was shown by recognizing independence of Kosovo while rejecting the very same claims by Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Having accepted Crimea in the proper of the Russian Federation following the referendum results, Russia actually challenged the US sole right for interpretation of international law. But Russia’s invocation of self-determination right in Crimea may be conducive to America’s invocation of the same right of various peoples in Russia with support of respective movements. Out of all such movements, two seem the most dangerous, namely Wahhabism and ethnic Russian diminutive nationalism. While the former struggles to separate from Russia Muslim-dominated areas with their subsequent inclusion into newly-born Islamic State, the latter pushes the agenda of discarding all minority areas off Russian state.