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Crimea and Sevastopol

Crimea declared independent sovereign state

The Supreme Council addresses the Russian Federation with a proposal to admit the Republic of Crimea in Russia's federal structure

Demonstrators holding Crimean and Russian flags in Simferopol ITAR-TASS/Alexander Ryumin

Demonstrators holding Crimean and Russian flags in Simferopol

© ITAR-TASS/Alexander Ryumin

SIMFEROPOL, March 17. /ITAR-TASS/. The Supreme Council of Crimea on its special plenary session on Monday has adopted the resolution “On independence of Crimea”. According to the Crimean parliament’s press service, 85 deputies have casted affirmative votes.

The adopted document stipulates that the Republic of Crimea represented by the Supreme Council “addresses the Russian Federation with a proposal to admit the Republic of Crimea in the Russian Federation’s structure as a new subject with the status of a republic”.

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Results of the referendum

According to summary data, 96.7% of people voting in the Crimean referendum backed Crimea’s re-joining Russia, the head of the Supreme Council’s referendum commission, Mikhail Malyshev said on Monday. A total of 1.2 million people, or 96.7%, said they wanted to join Russia.

The voter turnout was 1.2 million people, or 83.1% of eligible voters, he said summing up the results of the referendum in which voters were asked whether they wanted to join Russia or have a greater autonomy within Ukraine.

The official said 31.9 votes or 2.5% were cast in favor of a greater autonomy within Ukraine. As many as 9.1 ballot papers (0.7%) were invalid.

Some 70 observers from 23 countries were monitoring the referendum. According to some of them, the voting passed in a calm atmosphere, in an organized and transparent way. Head of the mission of international observers Mateusz Piskorski (Poland) said that their final declaration would be announced on Monday morning.

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Referendum in Crimea

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