OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva at the Assembly's Winter Meeting, 19 February 2015COPENHAGEN, 18 March 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) today issued the following statement on the one-year anniversary of the illegal annexation of Crimea, Ukraine by the Russian Federation:

"Last March, Russia attempted to legitimize its occupation of Crimea and the fabricated 'referendum' that followed by supposedly integrating the Ukrainian territory into its own. One year later, the annexation is not one bit less illegal, Russia's actions are not one bit less reprehensible and the blow to the OSCE's founding principles is not one bit less intense. While the situation in the east of Ukraine may have since taken Crimea's place in the headlines, the world must never forget this clear breach of international norms.

"I am also alarmed at the steady deterioration in human rights and civil liberties that we have witnessed since the illegal annexation: Minorities, particularly Crimean Tatars, have been stripped of their rights, activists and NGOs have been silenced and the OSCE has tracked a systematic attack on media freedoms.

"I look forward to the day when all of these injustices will end and when Ukrainian sovereignty over all of its territory will be restored. Russia, as an OSCE participating State, has an obligation to facilitate both."