Moscow: Russia has declared Crimea a sovereign nation on Monday. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognising Crimea as an independent state following its vote to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
In a referendum that has fanned the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War the Kremlin’s official website quoted Putin’s decree was issued “considering the expression of the will of the people of Crimea at the general Crimean referendumâ€.
The Crimean Peninsula according to Ukraine population census of 2001 has predominately Russian ethnic majority of 58%. Crimea has been under the control of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany before becoming a part of Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic on 19 February 1954.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of the newly independent Ukraine. On May 6 1992 the same parliament inserted a new sentence into this constitution that declared Crimea part of Ukraine.
The Crimean referendum has been denounced as illegal by both the new pro-European leaders in Kiev as well as most of the international community. Final results showed that 96.8% of voters were in favour of joining Russia, the head of the referendum commission said.
(With AFP inputs)