Crimea declared independence yesterday and applied to join Russia, while the Kremlin braced for sanctions after the flashpoint peninsula voted to leave Ukraine in a ballot that will likely fan the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War.
Official results from Sunday’s poll showed that 96.77 percent of the voters in the mostly Russian-speaking region opted to switch to Kremlin rule, in what would be the most radical redrawing of the European map since Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.
Crimea’s Kremlin-backed lawmakers also declared the ruble the peninsula’s second official currency and vowed to “disband” the Ukrainian military units stationed across the region — a move that threatens to further escalate the security crisis raging on the EU’s eastern frontier.
Photo: AFP
Interim Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov denounced the vote as a “great farce” and lawmakers approved a partial mobilization of the Ukrainia’s army aimed at countering Russian troops’ effective seizure of Crimea.
Most of the international community has rejected the referendum as illegal because Russia had vowed to respect its neighbor’s territorial integrity under a milestone 1994 agreement that saw Ukraine renounce its Soviet-era nuclear arms.
However, the government in Crimea announced a series of measures to sever the ties with Kiev.
The White House said US President Barack Obama warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that Washington and its allies would “never” recognize Crimea’s breakaway vote.
Obama warned that “Russia’s actions were in violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and that, in coordination with our European partners, we are prepared to impose additional costs on Russia for its actions,” the White House said.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton also said the EU needed to send the “strongest possible signals” to Russia at a meeting of the 28-nation bloc’s foreign ministers yesterday.
The ministers are widely expected to approve “targeted” sanctions against Russian or pro-Kremlin Ukrainian leaders that could include travel restrictions and asset freezes.
Putin has signaled no intention to turn back on what he describes as his defense of ethnic Russians who he says have come under increasing attack from Ukrainian ultranationalists since last month’s ouster in Kiev of a pro-Kremlin regime by a far more nationalist, but Western-leaning team.
The Kremlin said Putin “emphasized” to Obama that the referendum “was fully in line with the norms of international law and the UN charter.”
It added that Putin said that “the well-known precedent of Kosovo” — a mostly Muslim region of former Soviet ally Yugoslavia whose independence is backed by Washington, but not recognized by the Kremlin.
Putin is to make a special address on the crisis today that will be attended by lawmakers from Russia’s two houses of parliament.
Crimea’s self-declared leader Sergiy Aksyonov tweeted yesterday that he was flying to Moscow for talks.
Russia’s lower house of parliament is expected to debate legislation on Friday simplifying the process under which the Kremlin can annex another part of a sovereign state.
Some ethnic Ukranians expressed bewilderment at a referendum that presented them with only two choices: to join Russia or go back to a 1992 constitution under which Crimea became a de facto sovereign state.
The “status quo” or better terms with Kiev were not options — a reality that along with the massive presence of Russian troops across the region prompted British Foreign Secretary William Hague to call the vote a “mockery” of democracy.
Crimea’s indigenous Muslim Tatar community — deported to Central Asia en masse by former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and deeply wary of Moscow — also largely boycotted the referendum.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique