MOSCOW, March 06. /ITAR-TASS/. The Crimean legislature’s approval of the idea the peninsula may join Russia is a historical decision, the State Duma’s Deputy Speaker Sergei Neverov said in an interview to Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“We are one nation split because of [Communist] party functionaries’ irresponsibility,” said Neverov, secretary of the General Council of the ruling party, United Russia.

First Deputy Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Rustam Temirgaliev told Itar-Tass on Thursday the autonomy’s legislature had approved in principle the republic’s accession to Russia as one of its constituent regions. A referendum on the issue is scheduled for March 16.