In a long article published in Il Fatto Quotidiano Oct. 2, Italian Gen. Fabio Mini (ret.) rejects the narrative, pushed by Western governments and media, that “the Russian referenda in occupied territories in Ukraine is a farce, the annexation is illegal and violates international law.”
“Wrong,” Mini wrote: “Referendums (and therefore results) are automatically recognized when they are monitored by international bodies. In any case, such recognition is not necessary for validity. Any country can say and condemn whatever it wants, but it is the country that held the referendum that takes responsibility for it. The opinion of others is purely political and not legal.
“Of the Russian occupation and annexation in Georgia, Crimea, and Donbass we can deprecate the methods only by forgetting our own ‘occupations,’ but they are among the very rare examples where the occupier, through annexation, prior or without referendum takes full responsibility for military security, protection of civilians, and livelihood of the population. Indeed, by changing the status of the territories from ‘occupied’ to ‘its own,’ Russia has taken on even stronger responsibilities and commitments. Obligations that Ukraine itself has violated for eight years in a row by treating ‘its’ Donbass citizens as rogues.
