The most controversial referendum of Crimea – whether to join Russia or to remain independent- has been successfully completed. Crimean Election Commission said that 75% votes have been counted so far and 96% results show that people wish to integrate Crimea with Russia.
A senior official of Crimean Election Commission said that “the turnover of votes was more than 80% and a small fraction of population had not cast votes”. When the results were announced, a huge number of people gathered at Lenin Square of Simferopol for cheering and waving Russian flags.
Besides, Sergey Aksyonov Crimea’s Prime Minister said to the crowd that “No one can take this victory from us, we are going home, and Crimea is in Russia”. On the other hand, United States had already speculated that majority of ethnic population of Russia would vote in favor of aligning with Russia and Moscow had grossly beckoned the referendum.
Apart from this, President of United State Barack Obama had telephoned to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and said that “United States and International Community will never recognize this referendum as legitimate because Russia has violated Ukraine’s constitution and its territorial integrity”. He further said that “we along with our European partners will surely impose sheer sanctions against Russia for its unconstitutional moves”.
In addition, Secretary of United States John Kerry had also made a telephone call to Sergey Lavrov Foreign Minister of Russia and recorded his statement that “United States considers this referendum illegal and it is against the constitution of Ukraine therefore we are not going to accept the results”.
Lastly, European Union had also echoed its voice against the referendum and termed it totally illegal. It further said that “Russia should immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine and we are seriously looking at sanctions to impose”.