Crimea Referendum Moved Forward to March 16 – RIA

[another_liberal]

13. This from RT News.

Crimean parliament votes to join Russia, hold referendum in 10 days on ratifying.



A referendum on the status of Crimea will be held March 16, the region’s deputy prime minister announced. Crimeans will be asked to decide if the autonomous republic stays part of Ukraine or joins Russia. "The referendum will take place March 16," said the autonomous region’s First Deputy-Premier Rustam Temirgaliev, according to ITAR-TASS.

The new date is two weeks earlier than the one announced last week. There will be two questions on the ballots. “The first one: Are you in favor of Crimea becoming a constituent territory of the Russian Federation. The second one: Are you in favor of restoring Crimea’s 1992 constitution,” Temirgaliev said.

According to the 1992 constitution, the autonomous republic is part of Ukraine but has relations with Kiev, defined on the basis of mutual agreements. Sevastopol residents will take part in the referendum, despite the city enjoying a special status and not officially being a part of Crimea, according to Sergey Shuvainikov, a Crimean MP. “We will give Sevastopol an opportunity to have its say,” he said, as cited by RIA Novosti. Meanwhile the Crimean MPs have unanimously voted for the region to become a part of Russia. "To become part of the Russian Federation as its constituent territory,” says the text of the Crimean parliament’s statement, obtained by RIA Novosti.

When the decision was announced to the people outside the parliament building, they welcomed the news with cheers and screams of “Russia!”

(snip)

Read more at: http://rt.com/news/crimea-referendum-status-ukraine-154/

We in the West, and particularly in this country, are now going to reap what we have sown by bringing down the democratically elected government in Kiev. How many more eastern regions will now also want to break away from Ukraine is yet to be seen. War Hawks can rest assured, their hopes of getting a major new war started are looking much better over the next few months.