US, EU impose sanctions after Crimea vote
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THE United States and the European Union imposed sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans on officials from Russia and Ukraine after Crimea applied to join Russia yesterday following a weekend referendum.
Crimea’s leaders declared a 97 percent result in favor of seceding from Ukraine in a vote condemned as illegal by Kiev and the West.
The Crimean parliament made a proposal to the Russian Federation to admit the Republic of Crimea as a new subject with the status of a republic.
US President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on 11 Russians and Ukrainians blamed for Moscow’s military seizure of Crimea, including ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and Vladislav Surkov and Sergei Glazyev, two aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In Brussels, the EU’s 28 foreign ministers agreed on a list of 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials to be subject to travel bans and asset freezes for their roles in the events.
Washington and Brussels said more measures could follow in the coming days if Russia does not back down and formally takes Crimea.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who was named on the White House sanctions list, suggested that the measures would not affect those without assets abroad.
Moscow responded to Western pressure for an international “contact group” to mediate in the crisis by proposing a “support group” of states. This would push for recognition of the Crimean referendum and urge a new constitution for Ukraine that would require it to uphold political and military neutrality.
A complete preliminary count of Sunday’s vote showed that 96.77 percent of voters opted to join Russia, the chairman of the regional government commission overseeing the referendum, Mikhail Malyshev, announced on television.
Officials said the turnout was 83 percent. Crimea is home to 2 million people. Members of the ethnic Ukrainian and Muslim Tatar minorities had said they would boycott the poll.
Putin is to address a joint session of the Russian parliament about Crimea today, his representative to the lower house said.
Russian shares and the ruble rebounded as investors calculated that Western sanctions would be largely symbolic and would avoid trade or financial measures that would inflict significant economic damage.
Russia’s lower house of parliament will pass legislation allowing Crimea to join Russia “in the very near future,” news agency Interfax cited its deputy speaker as saying.
“Results of the referendum in Crimea clearly showed that residents of Crimea see their future only as part of Russia,” Sergei Neverov was quoted as saying.
The Ukrainian parliament yesterday endorsed a presidential decree for a partial military mobilization to call up 40,000 reservists to counter Russia’ military actions.
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