UpdateMoscow wins landslide referendum in Crimea as West readies sanctions
Final results in the Crimea referendum show that 97 percent of Crimeans voted in favour of joining Russia. The vote may have been called illegal by the US and European Union – but thousands of pro-Moscow voters who spilled out on to the streets in both Sevastopol and the Crimean capital Simferopol did not care.
Crimea’s Moscow-backed leaders declared a 97-percent vote in favour of quitting Ukraine and annexation by Russia in a referendum Western powers said was illegal and will bring immediate sanctions.
As state media in Russia carried a startling reminder of its power to turn the United States to "radioactive ash", President Barack Obama spoke to Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian president that he and his European allies were ready to impose "additional costs" on Moscow for violating Ukraine’s territory.
The Kremlin and the White House issued statements saying Obama and Putin saw diplomatic options to resolve what is the gravest crisis in East-West relations since the cold war.
Russia is the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash.
Moscow defended a military takeover of the majority ethnic Russian Crimea by citing a right to protect "peaceful citizens". Ukraine’s interim government has mobilised troops to defend against an invasion of its eastern mainland, where pro-Russian protesters have been involved in deadly clashes in recent days.
Final results of the referendum in Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula that is home to 2 million people, show that 97 percent of voters have supported leaving Ukraine to join Russia, the head of the referendum election commission said Monday.