If you come by train,
expect to be searched by pro-Russian militia. If you want to rally in
favor of Ukraine's West-leaning interim government, expect to be
surrounded by pushy pro-Russians.
Breakneck preparations
are under way for a Sunday referendum -- to be held largely in secret --
and the grip of security measures is tightening around Simferopol, the
regional capital.
When Crimeans go to vote, they will have to choose between two alternatives.
The ballot questions will
be: Do you support reuniting Crimea with Russia, as a subject of the
Russian Federation? Or, do you support the restoration of the 1992
Constitution of the Republic of Crimea and Crimea's status as a part of
Ukraine?
According to the 1992
Constitution, Crimea is really an independent state, making the choice
in effect between joining Russia and independence.
The Crimean Electoral
Commission is now delivering referendum ballots to regional
administrative buildings, according to the body's head, Michail
Malishev.
The new pro-Russian
government on the peninsula in Ukraine's southeast said Tuesday that if
the voters opt to join Russia, the first step will be to declare Crimea
an independent and sovereign state. Then it will apply to join the
Russian Federation.
Crimea's representatives have already approached Moscow with their idea. Russian leaders have greeted them with open arms.
Tensions rise
Russian-speaking troops
wearing no identifying insignia have Crimea firmly under their control.
Many believe that they belong at least in part to Russia's military, an
assertion Moscow has repeatedly denied. Russia says they are local
"self-defense" forces.
The well-armed men have effectively isolated the peninsula, which has an ethnic Russian majority, from the rest of Ukraine.
Tensions flared
Wednesday at a Ukrainian military base in Novoozernoye, in western
Crimea. A CNN team saw Ukrainian forces load and cock their weapons as
what appeared to be Russian soldiers moved in on the base and placed a
heavy machine gun at the gates. The Russian troops then pulled back.
There has been an international outcry over Crimea's push for separation, and warnings that the referendum won't be recognized.
Ukraine's interim government, backed by the United States and European powers, has called it illegitimate.
Interim Prime Minister
Arseniy Yatsenyuk is due to meet with President Barack Obama in
Washington later Wednesday, before heading to New York on Thursday to
address the United Nations Security Council.
The Ukrainian delegation
will also meet with Congress, the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund while in Washington, in an indication of the international
support for their fledgling government.
G7 tells Russia to back off
The G7 -- the world's
leading industrial powers without Russia -- and leaders of the European
Council and Commission issued a strongly worded statement Wednesday
calling on Russia to "cease all efforts to change the status of Crimea
contrary to Ukrainian law and in violation of international law."
The statement urged Russia to immediately halt actions supporting the referendum.
"Any such referendum
would have no legal effect. Given the lack of adequate preparation and
the intimidating presence of Russian troops, it would also be a deeply
flawed process which would have no moral force. For all these reasons,
we would not recognize the outcome," it said.
It warned that the
annexation of Crimea could have "grave implications" for the legal order
protecting the sovereignty of all states. "Should the Russian
Federation take such a step, we will take further action, individually
and collectively," it said.
Russia should pull its
forces back to their pre-crisis numbers and garrisons, and talk to the
government in Kiev and international mediators, the leaders said.
The G7 nations -- the
United States, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Japan
-- had already suspended preparations for a planned G8 summit in the
Russian city of Sochi in June in response to Russia's actions in
Ukraine.
Welcome to Crimea
Passengers disembarking
in Simferopol on Tuesday saw pro-Russian militiamen wearing red armbands
that proclaimed their allegiance to "the autonomous republic of
Crimea."
The men helped police search arrivals, sometimes shoving them to where they want them to stand.
"We are looking for
people who are bringing in weapons. For security. From Ukraine. From
Maidan," a guard explained, referring to Kiev's Independence Square, the
epicenter of protests that toppled Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian
former President of Ukraine.
A saleswoman offered new cell phone cards to new arrivals -- also for security reasons, she explained.
"The fascist who wants
to be President, he wants to bring his armed men here from Kiev, to
disrupt our referendum. He doesn't want to negotiate, he just wants to
shoot," she said.
A passenger arriving from Russia at the airport seemed confident about how the vote will go.
"Crimea is Russia!" he exclaimed, as he exited.
Russia's reach
Assuming the referendum
goes in favor of joining the Russian Federation, the newly installed
Crimean parliament will place the request to join with Moscow.
The lower house of parliament there has announced it will debate whether to accept Crimea on March 21.
Yanukovych, who is
currently in Russia, insists he is still the legitimate leader of
Ukraine and has vowed to return to Kiev "as soon as the circumstances
allow."
Speaking in
Rostov-on-Don in southwestern Russia on Tuesday, Yanukovych slammed the
interim government in Kiev as "a gang of ultranationalists and
fascists."
Yanukovych fled Kiev on
February 22, after three months of protests against his decision to
scrap a trade deal with the European Union and embrace closer ties with
Russia.
Less than a week later, armed men seized the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol and raised the Russian flag above it.
The Crimean Black Sea
port city of Sevastopol, where Russia has a large naval base, decided to
grant the Russian language official status, and the city administration
started using it Wednesday.
World stage
The peninsula in the
Black Sea, with a population of just over 2 million people, has stepped
into the spotlight of the world stage.
The West has been
preparing sanctions and at the same time telling Moscow that there is a
way out of an economic and diplomatic showdown: Talk to Ukraine's new
government and don't intervene militarily.
Moscow has denounced the
events that led to Yanukovych's ouster as an illegitimate coup and has
refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his government has the right to protect ethnic Russians living there.
Unarmed military and
civilian observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe are now on the ground in the city of Donetsk, in eastern
Ukraine, the regional security bloc said via Twitter. The team was
repeatedly turned back from entering Crimea by armed men.
A report by the OSCE
observer team said that although it was prevented from entering Crimea,
its "observations produced significant evidence of equipment consistent
with the presence of Russian Federation military personnel (in the
vicinity of) the various roadblocks encountered."
The evidence included
Russian pattern uniforms and equipment without identifying patches, as
well as trucks bearing license plate numbers associated with Russia's
Black Sea Fleet, the observers said.
"This report adds to our
deep concerns and clearly suggests direct involvement by the Russian
Federation and its agents in preventing impartial, unarmed observers
from doing the work they are supposed to do," U.S. Ambassador to the
OSCE Daniel Baer said.
"Russian encouragement of and support for illegal checkpoints is unhelpful."
Sanctions mooted
The U.S. House of
Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a resolution
condemning Russia for its military intervention in Ukraine and urging
economic and other sanctions in response.
In a 402-7 vote,
lawmakers approved a nonbinding resolution stating that Russia's action
poses a "threat to international peace and security" and calling on
Russia to remove "all of its military forces from Ukraine's Crimean
Peninsula" other than those that are there in accordance with an
agreement on operations of Russia's Black Sea fleet.
The resolution urges the
Obama administration to band together with European allies to impose
visa, financial, trade and other sanctions on senior Russian Federation
officials, majority state-owned banks and commercial organizations.
On Tuesday, the European Commission offered Ukraine trade incentives worth about 500 million euros a year.
European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was also "moving ahead fast" with
the implementation of an 11 billion euro ($15 billion) package of
support for cash-strapped Ukraine promised last week.
Russia: 'absolutely legitimate'
Russian officials have
compared Crimea's potential departure from Ukraine to Kosovo's secession
from Serbia after many years of bloody civil war with its former
neighbor.
Western governments recognized the separation over bitter opposition from Serbia and its historical allies in Moscow.
In a prepared statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry cited it as a precedent for the "absolutely legitimate" Crimean vote.
"The Russian Federation will respect the results of the free vote of Crimea's people during the referendum," it said.
:::CNN:::
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