| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| 95.5% of Crimeans Vote to Join Russia, U.S. and UK Slam Referendum as Illegitimate |
| 2014-03-17 |
| [An Nahar] An overwhelming 95.5 percent of Crimeans voted Sunday to become part of Russia in a referendum deemed illegal by the new authorities in Ukraine and most of the international community, exit polls showed. With 50 percent of ballots counted, referendum commission chairman Mykhaylo Malyshev said 3.5 percent had voted to remain in Ukraine with wider autonomous powers and 1.0 percent were "spoiled ballots." Crimea's pro-Moscow leader Sergiy Aksyonov said the referendum "will go down in history." "Today we took a very important decision that will go down in history," Aksyonov tweeted after in the wake of the exit poll. He said Crimea's regional government will make a formal application Monday to join the Russian Federation. "The Supreme Soviet of Crimea will make an official application for the republic to join the Russian Federation at a meeting on March 17," Aksyonov said in a tweet. The United States strongly rejected the vote and called Russian actions in the crisis "dangerous and destabilizing." "This referendum is contrary to Ukraine's constitution, and the international community will not recognize the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention that violates international law," White House front man Jay Carney said. "The United States has steadfastly supported the independence, illusory sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine since it declared its independence in 1991, and we reject the 'referendum' that took place today in the Crimean region of Ukraine," Carney said. Carney said Russia had spurned outreach to Ukraine and calls for international monitoring, instead escalating its military intervention into Crimea and initiating military exercises on Ukraine's eastern border. "Russia's actions are dangerous and destabilizing," the White House front man said. "As the United States and our allies have made clear, military intervention and violation of international law will bring increasing costs for Russia -- not only due to measures imposed by the United States and our allies but also as a direct result of Russia's own destabilizing actions," he said. The White House condemnation followed further talks between U.S. Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov earlier Sunday. In a phone call with Lavrov, Kerry urged Moscow to pull back Russian forces to their bases in Crimea in exchange for constitutional reforms to protect minority rights. A senior State Department official said Kerry "made clear that this crisis can only be resolved politically and that as Ukrainians take the necessary political measures going forward, Russia must reciprocate by pulling forces back to base, and addressing the tensions and concerns about military engagement." Kerry also raised concerns about Russian military activity in Kherson Oblast, the Ukrainian province just north of Crimea, and "continuing provocations" in the eastern cities in Ukraine, the official said. Kerry's overture appeared to receive a positive echo in Moscow, where the foreign ministry said Lavrov and Kerry agreed to look for ways to defuse the crisis through "the launch as soon as possible of a constitutional reform with the support of the international community." For its part, Britannia slammed the vote as a "mockery" of democracy and refused to recognize the referendum's outcome. Speaking in Brussels ahead of a meeting of European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... foreign ministers on Monday, Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the vote as being in breach of the Ukrainian constitution. "Nothing in the way that the referendum has been conducted should convince anyone that it is a legitimate exercise," he said in a Foreign Office statement. "It is a mockery of proper democratic practice. "The UK does not recognize the referendum or its outcome, in common with the majority of the international community," he added. He called on his EU colleagues to push for measures "that send a strong signal to Russia that this challenge to the illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia will bring economic and political consequences." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #11 John Kerry, "Don't Do It!!" Guess they no speaky le Englesh. |
| Posted by: Omavising Ebbemp9815 2014-03-17 23:03 |
| #10 The DPRK's 100%-of-the-Vote loving KJU = "Pudgy" says "Pffftttt - Slackers"! As per #9 - Yuuuup. * ION FREEREPUBLIC > [Reuters] AFTER CRIMEA, EAST + SOUTH UKRAINE ASK IFF THEY ARE NEXT? * SAME > [Daily Beast] KHARKIV [Kharkov] UKRAINE'S NEXT TIPPING POINT? Battlefields of the feared 2ND SS Panzer "Das Reich". * SAME > [Vocativ] JIHADISTS ARE SEETHING AT RUSSIA OVER CRIMEA. * RUSSIA TODAY > CRIMEA'S REFERENDUM CORRECTED SOVIET-ERA MISTAKE - GORBACHEV, i.e. the former USSR's mistake in merging the Crimea wid the then-Ukrainian SSR widout the consent of the locals. Also read, STALIN'S MISTAKE. * BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Guardian = CNN] OPINION:OBAMA CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS IN CRIMEA. IMO Artic read, US-SPECIFIC NATIONALISM VS ANTI-US GLOBALISM [OWG-NWO]. versus * TOPIX > [Daily Beast] THE UKRAINE WANTS US HELP IN A WAR. Well, yeah, ditto for JAPAN + PHIL + VIETNAM + INDIA, ETC. * CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > THE PRC ABSTAINS HER VOTE ON UNSC RESOLUTION CONDEMNING CRIMEA INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM | UN RESOLUTION: RUSSIA VETOES, CHINA ABSTAINS. Beijing playing it "safe" vee Russia + US??? * OTOH TOPIX > CRIMEA REFERENDUM SPARKS SECESSION DEBATE IN CHINA. China to continue its policy of non-interference in foreign affairs, or else to begin engaging an active Foreign Policy where China-specific unilateral or joint MilPol intervention is possible. Lest we fergit, UKRAINE = ONCE CONQUERED BY THE MONGOLS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE, I.E. CHINA'S "YUAN" DYNASTY. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-03-17 20:24 |
| #9 Russian Deputy PM Laughs at Obama’s Sanctions Russia’s deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama’s sanction against him today asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list. The Obama administration hit 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials with sanctions today as punishment for Russia’s support of Crimea’s referendum. Among them: aides to President Vladimir Putin, a top government official, senior lawmakers, Crimean officials, the ousted president of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian politician and businessman allegedly tied to violence against protesters in Kiev. |
| Posted by: Elmaque Huputch7332 2014-03-17 18:27 |
| #8 Jeez, Barry...you must feel like a Republican running for sumthin in Chicago. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2014-03-17 16:17 |
| #7 I just voted to annex Mexico to my back yard... |
| Posted by: Marilyn Noodleman3184 2014-03-17 16:00 |
| #6 So based on the precedent Tovarisch Putin has set, we should call for Chechneya and other ethnic accretions to the Rodina to hold elections to declare their annexation to the nearest appropriate polity. And since China saw fit to abstain on the UN vote, a sucession vote in Tibet would be most tickey-boo. |
| Posted by: Pancho Elmomoting7413 2014-03-17 14:53 |
| #5 Putin didn't even feel the need to employ useful idiot Jimmy Carter to validate. That's got to hurt our mom jeans CIC/leader of the free world. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2014-03-17 14:42 |
| #4 The era of "legitimate is whatever we say is legitimate" is over? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-03-17 14:14 |
| #3 ..this is whatcha' get when you don't have Jimmy Carter and Sean Penn officiating.. |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2014-03-17 12:37 |
| #2 An illegitimate vote? That's unpossible! |
| Posted by: Kofi Tholing4837 2014-03-17 12:36 |
| #1 Just as legit as 101% of a precinct voting for Obama, I'd say. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2014-03-17 10:52 |