Without a national minority (of Tatars),[clarification needed] Crimea was stripped of its autonomous republic status and became the Crimean oblast of the Russian SFSR.
With the help of the Black Sea Fleet administration, in February 1992 the movement initiated the gathering of signatures for a referendum for Crimea in the new Soviet Union.
[10] In June 1992, the parties reached a compromise, that Crimea would have considerable autonomy but remain part of Ukraine.
On 5 May 1992, the Crimean legislature declared conditional independence,[1][12] but a referendum to confirm the decision was never held, amid opposition from Kyiv.
Among the protesters that created the unsanctioned rally were the Sevastopol branches of the National Salvation Front, the Russian Popular Assembly, and the All-Crimean Movement of the Voters for the Republic of Crimea.
[13] In February 1994 the Ukrainian Parliament issued an ultimatum to Crimea, which had just elected the pro-Russian Meshkov, giving it a month to harmonise its laws with Ukraine.
Yeltsin refused to meet with the Crimean President, and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin stated that Russia had no claim on Crimea.
[21][22] On 30 January 1994, Yuriy Meshkov was elected as President of Crimea on a pro-Russian platform against the favoured candidate of the local establishment, Nikolai Bagrov.
[27][28] After this Ukrainian National Guard troops entered Meshkov's residence,[29] disarmed his bodyguards and put him on a plane to Moscow.