Crimea holds referendum to split from Ukraine
Pro-Russian demonstrators hold large copies of United Nations documents on the right to self-determination outside the regional parliament building in Simferopol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 16, 2014. AP
SIMFEROPOL — Crimeans voted Sunday in a unique referendum on breaking away from Ukraine to join Russia that has precipitated a Cold War-style security crisis on Europe’s eastern frontier.
Cossacks and pro-Moscow militias were seen patrolling at some polling stations and Russian flags were being flown everywhere from city buses to convoys of bikers roaming the streets.
Ukraine’s new government and most of the international community except Russia have said they will not recognize a result expected to be overwhelmingly in favor of immediate secession.
“This is a historic moment, everyone will live happily,” Sergiy Aksyonov, the local pro-Moscow prime minister, told reporters after casting his ballot in the regional capital Simferopol.
“We will celebrate this evening,” Aksyonov said, after a man waving a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag and demanding it be put up inside the polling station was pushed away by security guards.
The Black Sea peninsula is inhabited mostly by ethnic Russians and has been seized by Russian forces over the past month after the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin leader in February, plunging US-Russia ties to their lowest point since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Ukraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov, who last month replaced the ousted Viktor Yanukovych, called for a boycott of the ballot, accusing Moscow of preparing an invasion.
“The result has been pre-planned by the Kremlin as a formal justification to send in its troops and start a war that will destroy people’s lives and the economic prospects for Crimea,” he said.
Some Crimeans who requested anonymity said they were planning to spoil their ballots in protest and there was a call on social media for people to stay at home and cook vareniki — Ukrainian dumplings — instead of going out to vote.
Accredited journalists including AFP were prevented from entering some polling stations in the port city of Sevastopol and the regional capital Simferopol, and several people were seen voting in Sevastopol even before the polls opened.
Foreign observers were present but the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declined an invitation to monitor saying it was not official because it did not come from Ukraine’s national government.
“We have waited years for this moment,” said 71-year-old Ivan Konstantinovich, who raised his hands in victory after voting in Bakhchysaray.
“Everyone will vote for Russia,” he said.
The town is the main centre of Crimea’s native Muslim Tatar community, which is urging a boycott of the referendum, and mostly ethnic Russians were seen turning out to vote there.
Voters can choose to become part of Russia or retain more autonomy but stay in Ukraine — a vote for the status quo is not an option.
Preliminary results were expected to be announced soon after polls close at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).
The referendum committee said turnout was at 44 percent a third of the way through voting.
Rehearsals for planned celebrations have included the slogan “We are in Russia!” beamed on to the government building in Simferopol, leaving no doubt about the expected outcome.
In Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the 18th century, the mood was celebratory and patriotic Russian military songs blared.
Preparations to become part of Russia — a process that could take months — are to begin this week if the referendum result is pro-Moscow.
Pro-Russia authorities and Moscow say the referendum is an example of self-determination like Kosovo’s decision to leave Serbia but Washington says it cannot be democratic because it is taking place “under the barrel of a gun”.
Tensions have escalated in mostly Russian-speaking parts of eastern Ukraine ahead of the vote.
Three activists have been killed in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv in the run-up, while pro-Moscow supporters have called for similar separatist polls in other Ukrainian regions.
Around 1,000 pro-Moscow activists rallied in Donetsk on Sunday to support Crimea’s referendum and 2,000 turned out in Kharkiv with a large Russian flag and a sign reading “Our Homeland is the USSR”.
‘Extremely worrying’
Russian troops and pro-Kremlin militias took control of the strategic peninsula soon after Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia in the wake of three months of deadly protests in Kiev.
Russian senators have also given the go-ahead for President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine when he wants, citing the need to defend ethnic Russians against ultra-nationalist radicals.
Ukrainian military bases in the region are surrounded by militias and the post-referendum fate of the personnel who live in Crimea with their families is unclear.
There have been several attacks on journalists and pro-unity activists condemned by Amnesty International as “extremely worrying”.
‘Crimean Spring’
The diplomatic wrangling and brinksmanship over Crimea have been startling, including a confrontation at the UN Security Council in which interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk asked: “Do the Russians want war?”
Successive rounds of negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have failed and Kerry appeared to break diplomatic protocol by not showing up for planned talks in Moscow.
While the West has been powerless to stop Crimea’s annexation, Russia faces a painful round of sanctions against top officials that Washington and EU nations are set to unveil on Monday and it could be ostracized or even ejected from the Group of Eight (G8) leading world powers.
Local authorities are calling this a “Crimean Spring” but many Crimeans are concerned about a possible legal vacuum and economic turmoil.
One immediate worry is about the availability of cash and there have been long queues outside banks with Crimeans rushing to withdraw their money.
Crimea would not automatically join Russia after the vote and Ukraine’s government has said it cannot survive since it depends on electricity, energy and water supplies from the mainland.
In Bakhchysaray, Anna Ivanovna, 70, said she had voted to join Moscow, but was apprehensive.
“Yes, we will be Russians. It’s good but at the same time, at my age, it’s hard to change countries,” she said.
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