Ukraine crisis: Crimea MPs plan referendum on joining Russia

Photo: a Russian soldier stands guard near a Ukrainian navy command ship at the Crimean port of Sevastopol

MPs have voted to hold a referendum on whether Crimea should become part of the Russian Federation, in a move that is widely being seen as a prelude for unification. Parliament said the decision would be put to the Crimean people for their verdict in a referendum on 16 March.

Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has called the decision illegal and says it has no “legal grounds at all”. “Crimea is was and will be an integral part of Ukraine,” he told EU leaders. He also urged Russia to withdraw its military from Crimea and said the current crisis must be resolved only through peaceful means.

“This is our response to the disorder and lawlessness in Kiev,” Sergei Shuvainikov, a member of the local Crimean legislature, added. “We will decide our future ourselves.”

But there is dispute over the precise significance of the referendum. Crimea’s deputy prime minister has gone so far as to declare Russia already in force in the region. Ukrainian troops still on its territory will be treated as occupiers and forced to surrender or leave, Rustam Temirgaliev said.

“The only lawful armed force on the territory of the Crimea is the Russian armed forces,” Mr Temirgaliev added. “Armed forces of any third country are occupiers. The Ukrainian armed forces have to choose: lay down their weapons, quit their posts, accept Russian citizenship and join the Russian military. If they do not agree, we are prepared to offer them safe passage from the territory of Crimea to their Ukrainian homeland.”

The situation is fast escalating. The White House is now imposing visa restrictions on Russians and Crimeans who it says are “threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

President Barack Obama has also signed an executive order authorising sanctions against “individuals and entities responsible for activities undermining democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine.”

The White House has stressed that it is “prepared to consider additional steps, sanctions as necessary” depending on how the situation develops. Though a spokesman said it was “actively considering adding new names”, Mr Putin is not currently on the list.

#Tatar opposition leader Rifat Shubarov says Crimeans should boycott referendum on whether to join #Russia as it has no base in law.

— Lindsey Hilsum (@lindseyhilsum) March 6, 2014

The referendum is only to confirm. Decision has already been taken. From today Crimea is russian, if kremlin accepts. Wow.

— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 6, 2014

Russia’s Anschluss of Crimea would mark the 1st time a European nation annexed part of another since WWII. End of world order as we know it.

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) March 6, 2014

So after moving from 25 May to 30 March, Crimea’s referendum now on 16 March. The question’s changed too. Now it’s about joining Russia.

— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 6, 2014

The referendum: really a choice?

According to the decree published on the Crimean parliament’s website, citizens will be asked in the referendum whether they are in favour of reuniting the region with Russia “as a subject of the Russian Federation” or “retaining the status of Crimea as part of Ukraine”.

The parliament in Crimea, which enjoys a degree of autonomy under current Ukrainian law, has voted, by 78 with eight abstentions, in favour of holding the referendum. Local voters will also be given the choice of deciding to remain part of Ukraine, but with enhanced local powers.

A referendum had been already scheduled in Crimea on March 30, but the question to be put to voters was on whether their region should enjoy “state autonomy” within Ukraine.

On Thursday Nato urged Russia to call its troops on the Crimea peninsular back to their bases, saying it stood by Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said:

“This crisis is not just about Ukraine, this crisis has serious implications for the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole.”

Earlier, Crimea’s new leader said pro-Russian forces numbering more than 11,000 now control all access to the peninsula in the Black Sea and have blockaded all military bases that have not yet surrendered.

The west shapes its response

It came as EU leaders meet to discuss Russian sanctions and how best to deal with the Ukraine crisis, as the ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s assets are frozen by the EU.

The main focus of the emergency EU summit will be Russia and how strongly leaders should respond to Moscow’s deployment of troops in Crimea.

Earlier in the week, Russia rebuffed diplomatic efforts to persuade it to pull forces in Crimea back to their bases, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov refused to meet his new Ukrainian counterpart or to launch a “contact group” to seek a solution.

Also on Thursday, the EU announced it was freezing the assets of the ousted Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and 17 other people held responsible for embezzling state funds.

On the ground in Ukraine, a senior United Nations envoy was surrounded by a pro-Russian crowd in Crimea on Wednesday. He was threatened and eventually forced to get back on his plane and leave the country.

Britain and Germany are unlikely to force sanctions against Russia, Europe’s biggest gas supplier, even if other EU members, particularly those from eastern Europe, want to push for tougher sanctions. The United States has said it is ready to impose sanctions such as visa bans, asset freezes on individual Russian officials and restrictions on business ties within days rather than weeks.

Read more from Political Editor Gary Gibbon: what is the EU appetite for action?

‘I cannot be part of a network that whitewashes the actions of Putin’

Presenter Liz Wahl, who worked for the Russian funded RT-America formerly known as Russia Today, has resigned live on air in protest over the network’s coverage of the Ukraine crisis.

She said: “I cannot be part of a network funded by the Russian government, that whitewashes the actions of Putin”.

The Washington-based reporter made an impassioned speech live on air about how her family came to the US from Hungary, fleeing persecution from Russia, before saying that this would be her last report for the station.

Photo: Local women watch armed men, believed to be Russian soldiers, assemble near a Ukrainian military base in Perevalnoe