It is important to mention, that a de facto independent state is only existing by virtue of itself. As an independent state it has the right alone to decide, whether it is going to exist or not. Therefore, the existence is not dependent on any other state's recognition, which is only a confirming of the existence in fact. According to international law, a de facto independent state is entitled to exist, whether the existence is against some other state's national law or not, because an independent state is subject to international law, and internationa law breaks internal law on subjects concerning international law.
So, the recognition is not necessary for the state's right to exist. But it is important as a political proof for the existence. When a state has recognized another state, it has committed itself to treat it as a state on international law. So, a recognition of a de facto independent state" is valid just as a recognition of a "de jure independent state" is valid.
Therefore, it is not possible to draw back a recognition unless the state doesn't exist anymore. A state, who has recognized another state as de facto or de jure independent, is, according to international law, bound by this recognizing the same way it is bound by any other declaration on international law.
About the existence it is worth mentioning, that while the state is existing only by virtue of itself, it will also give up the existence by virtue of itself. Before this will happen, it has to make the decision all by itself. And the decision has to be prooved in an agreement or some other kind of confirmation.
If a state will be forced by another state to give up its existence, the change in status will not, according to international law, be legal and therefore not valid.
Considering the recognition of Chechnya there was no agreement or other confirmation in advance of RF's military campaign prooving, that the state CRI independently had decided to give up the independence. Which means, that it did not do it.
So, at the moment of the invasion, Chechnya was still an independent state, and RF was still bound by its commitment to treat it as an independent state. Therefore, the conclusion has to be, that RF was making the military action on the territory of another state.
The statements and treatments of Russia showing, that Chechnya was a part of RF, is not in accordance with international law. Therefore, the military actions and other actions on the territory of Chechnya must be considered to be unlegal, according to international law.
It is worth mentioning, that even though RF might claim the treaty from 1997 to be broken by Chechnya, it does not justified RF to draw back the recognition of Chechnya as being an independent state (15).
PUTIN'S STATEMENTS
When RF began invading Chechnya in 1999, it gradually appeared quite clearly, that RF was treating Chechnya as a part of RF. The state invaded the territory, exercised fighting against terrorism as an russian internal affair in Chechnya, removed the president and government and sat in a new. All actions were followed by several statements from Russia claiming, that Chechnya was part of RF.
Therefore, this was undoubtable RF's policy at that moment and has been the policy since then. Also there is no doubt, that Putin, first as the prime minister and later the president in this period, followed and still follows the same political strategy.
Nevertheless Putin has several times stated, that Chechnya was recognized as an independent state by RF (16). I will mention some examples:
a) The Larry King Live Show(16a):
"Since 1996, Russia completely and fully
fled Chechnya. Russia did not recognize the euro ("de jure", editor's note) ... independence of Chechnya, but de facto they got full state independence.
All the structures of governance of Russia were dismantled -- police, the
military, procurators offices, courts -- all the offices of administration were
destroyed and the president was elected who by law did not comply with the
procedures of the Russian Federation.
What happened afterwards? You all know. They didn't get any independence and de
facto the territory was occupied by foreign mercenaries and religious
fundamentalist, fanaticists from Afghanistan and other circles in the Arab
East. This is a fact of life. They started firing squads working on the
thoroughfares, beheading people, mass capture, hostage taking in the adjacent
territories of the Russian Federation and inside Chechnya. Over this period
they took hostage of over 200,000 people. That was a market of slave driving in
the contemporary world in Chechnya."
b) The press conferencen June 2001 (16b):
"In 1995 Russia did not legally recognize but effectively
agreed to Chechen independence and left the area entirely. It dismantled
all of its organs of power and administration there, withdrew the Army, the
police, the Prosecutor's Office, and the courts. Absolutely everything was
dismantled. I have to tell you that this looked like a national
humiliation, but Russia did it in order to achieve reconciliation. Russia
had encountered other problems.
...
The international community has never recognized Chechen independence. We
believe that it is part and parcel of the Russian Federation."
c) Interview with Financial Times (16c):
"In 1996 Russia withdrew all its military and law enforcement forces from the territory of Chechnya. Thus de facto, if not de jure, we granted independence to Chechnya. So nobody can accuse us of suppressing the desire of the Chechen people for independence. Once already we have given them such an opportunity.
And you know what the result was. What happened was that this legal and ideological vacuum was filled immediately with international terrorists and fundamentalists. What we got instead of a new state entity was a quasi-state of a terrorist nature.
...
Within the framework of the constitution of the Russian Federation, Chechnya can be granted rather broad autonomy. But we cannot afford to make the same error a second time, we cannot repeat what happened in 1996 when an enclave was created which destabilised the whole Russian Federation. We cannot afford this any more."
Page 5
Page 7
oo