The Head of the Republic of Crimea is the highest official and the head of the executive power of the Republic of Crimea; an internationally disputed federal subject of the Russian Federation located on the Crimean Peninsula. Crimean Head's policy is to ensure compliance with the Constitution and federal laws and the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Crimea, as well as the equality of nations and the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, and the preservation of the coordinated functioning of state bodies of the Republic. Person under 30 cannot be a head of the Republic. Term of office is five years. Appointed by the State Council of the Republic on nomination of President of the Russian Federation. Interim Head of the Republic is appointed directly by President. The current Head of the Republic Sergey Aksyonov was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2019. History Background The Crimean Peninsula, historically part of Imperial Russia and later an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, was ceded in 1954 to Ukraine, which administered it until the political-military crisis of 2014. Ukrainian President of Crimea Under Ukrainian rule, an equivalent post, named President of the Republic of Crimea (), was provided by the 1992 Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (de facto a special statute), with jurisdiction over the autonomous city of Sevastopol too. The first presidential elections took place in 1994, won by the pro-Russian separatist Yuriy Meshkov (leader of a coalition named "Russia"), but on 17 March 1995 the Ukrainian parliament, as part of a wider process of reduction of the Crimean autonomy, abolished both the statute and the post of President of Crimea. From Ukraine to the Russian Federation In the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution led by pro-European nationalists hostile to Russia, the rise of pro-Russian protests in Ukraine led to the so-called Crimean crisis, parallel to the outbreak of the war in Donbass. On 6 March 2014, the authorities of the autonomous republic of Crimea, emulated the next day by the authorities of Sevastopol, unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine, formalizing it jointly with a request to join the Russian Federation on March 11. On March 17, following a joint status referendum held on March 16, the Supreme Council of Crimea and Sevastopol City Council confirmed the independence of the newly unified Republic of Crimea from Ukraine and the popular will to join Russia. On the