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UKRAINE CRISIS ESCALATES

A man holds a Soviet Union flag as he attends a
pro-Russian rally at the Crimean parliament.

Crimea parliament votes to join Russia

Simferopol, March 6, 2014

Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia on Thursday and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum within 10 days on the decision in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula.

The sudden acceleration of moves to bring Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and has effectively been seized by Russian forces, formally under Moscow's rule came as European Union leaders gathered for an emergency summit to find ways to pressure Russia to back down.

A senior US official said any decisions about the future of Crimea, where the parliament voted to join Russia and scheduled a referendum, must involve the Ukrainian government in Kiev.

"With respect to the referendum that was announced, it is the belief of the United States that decisions about Crimea or any part of Ukraine need to be made with the government in Kiev," the official told reporters.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Ukraine's armed forces will act if Russian military intervention escalates any further in to Ukraine's territory.

"In case of further escalation and military intervention into the Ukrainian territory by foreign forces, the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian military will act in accordance with the constitution and laws," Yatseniuk said in Brussels.

"We are ready to protect our country," he said.

In another development, US President Barack Obama took steps to punish those involved in threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, ordering the freezing of their US assets and a ban on travel into the US.

The US Navy announced a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Truxton, was heading to the Black Sea in what it said was a long-planned training exercise and not a show of force.

The Crimean parliament voted unanimously "to enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation".

The vice premier of Crimea, home to Russia's Black Sea military base in Sevastopol, said a referendum on the status would take place on March 16. He said all state property would be "nationalised", the Russian rouble could be adopted and Ukrainian troops would be treated as occupiers and be forced to surrender or leave.

The announcement, which diplomats said could not have been made without Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval, raised the stakes in the most serious east-west confrontation since the end of the Cold War.

Russia stocks fell and the rouble weakened further after the news. Moody's ratings agency said the stand-off was negative for Russia's sovereign creditworthiness.

Russia said it would make it easier to give passports to native Russian speakers who have lived in Russia or the former Soviet Union. Putin has cited the threat to Russian citizens to justify military action in Georgia in 2008 and now in Ukraine .

Far from seeking a diplomatic way out of the crisis, Putin appears to have chosen to create facts on the ground before the West can agree on more than token action against him.

EU leaders had been set to warn but not sanction Russia over its military intervention after Moscow rebuffed Western diplomatic efforts to persuade it to pull forces in Crimea, with a population of about 2 million, back to their bases. It was not immediately clear what impact the Crimean moves would have.

The new Ukrainian government has declared the referendum illegal and opened a criminal investigation against Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Askyonov, who was appointed in a closed session by the region's parliament last week. The Ukrainian government does not recognise his authority or that of the parliament. - Reuters
 




Tags: Russia | Ukraine | Crimea |

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