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Agreements with Crimea and Sevastopol hoped to be ratified in few days

Sergey Aksyonov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vladimir Putin and Aleksei Chalyi signing the agreement ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Metsel

Sergey Aksyonov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vladimir Putin and Aleksei Chalyi signing the agreement

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Metsel

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Republic of Crimea considered accepted into Russian Federation

MOSCOW, March 18. /ITAR-TASS/. The State Duma has expressed hope that the procedure of the ratification of the agreements signed with Crimea and Sevastopol will begin in the next few days, Duma First Vice-speaker Alexander Zhukov said on Rossiya - 24 television on Tuesday.

Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said that the Russian parliament might immediately begin a discussion of the documents on Sevastopol and Crimea's accession to the Russian Federation. "We might go through all these juridical procedures by the end of the week," Matviyenko told Rossiya- 4 television on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day President Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea Vladimir Konstnatinov and Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, Sevastopol Mayor Alexei Chaly signed a treaty which stipulates that the Republic of Crimea has been acknowledged as reunified with the Russian Federation.

Since the date of Crimea's accession to the Russian Federation the new subjects - the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which has a federal status, have been created in the Russian Federation. Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean languages have been recognized as official languages spoken in the Republic of Crimea.

The territory of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol is limited to the borders of Crimea and Sevastopol which existed on the day of Crimea's reunification with the Russian Federation.

Crimea's state border on land, which adjoins the territory of Ukraine, is a state border of the Russian Federation.

The delimitation of water areas in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov is to be carried out on the basis of international agreements of the Russian Federation and the norms and principles of the international law.

Citizens of the Russian Federation drafted to compulsory military service in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol will undergo military service on the territory of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol until 2016, inclusive.

The election to the state bodies of power of the Republic of Crimea and the bodies of state power in the city of Sevastopol of federal importance shall be held on a second Sunday in September 2015 as envisaged in the Treaty signed by the President of the Russian Federation and the leadership of the Republic of Crimea on Tuesday.

Until the bodies of state power are elected in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol their functions will be performed by the State Council of the Republic of Crimea - parliament of the Republic of Crimea, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea and the Legislative Assembly of the city of Sevastopol, respectively - says the text of the document on Crimea’s accession to the Russian Federation.

The treaty has been temporarily in effect since the date of signing and comes into force since the ratification date.

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