The Federation Council will support the decision of the Crimean parliament to join Russia in the event of a positive result of the referendum, which will take place on March 16. reports that Interfax Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko stated this at a meeting with the Speaker of the Crimean Parliament Vladimir Konstantinov.

Matvienko, who called the decision of the Crimean parliament “historic,” emphasized that raising the issue of becoming part of another state is in line with international legal practice, in particular, comparing it with the referendum on Scottish independence, which will be held in September 2014.

Matvienko also emphasized that the Russian Federation is ready to send observers to the referendum in Crimea so that its results “do not raise any doubts in anyone’s mind about its legality.”

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Two questions have been submitted to the referendum in Crimea: “Are you for the reunification of Crimea with Russia as a subject of the Russian Federation?” and “Are you for restoring the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Crimea and for the status of Crimea as a part of Ukraine?”

From the point of view of current Ukrainian legislation, Crimea cannot secede from Ukraine and join Russia by holding a referendum within the autonomy. As follows from Article 73 of the Constitution of Ukraine, in order to change its territory, citizens of the entire country must vote in favor of this in a referendum.

Under UK law, in general a decision on Scotland's secession can only be made by the UK Parliament. At the same time, the Scotland Act , adopted by the British Parliament in 1998, provides for the possibility of temporarily transferring to the Scottish Parliament the right to independently declare referendums on the territory of autonomy if it receives permission from the Crown. In 2012, such a permit was signed by the British government: in accordance with it, London recognizes the legitimacy of the independence referendum announced by the Scottish Parliament, provided that it takes place before the end of 2014.

Matvienko compared the Crimean referendum with the Scottish one