DEVELOPMENTS
— Crimea’s Parliament adopted a resolution declaring that the disputed Ukrainian region would become an independent state if the results of a referendum Sunday show voters want to join Russia, leaving open options that could help defuse the crisis.
— Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who will meet President Barack Obama today, called on Western nations to defend Ukraine against a nation “that is armed to the teeth and that has nuclear weapons.”
— Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia last month, repeated Russia’s claim that the new Ukrainian authorities are bowing down to radical nationalists and said he would soon return to his country.
News services
Crimea’s Parliament said Tuesday that if the public votes to become part of Russia, the peninsula will declare itself independent and propose becoming a Russian state. That could offer a way of de-escalating the standoff between Russia and the West.
The vote in Crimea’s Parliament about Sunday’s referendum could give Moscow the option of saying there is no need for Crimea to become part of Russia while keeping it firmly within its sphere of influence.
The dispute between Moscow and the West over Crimea is one of the most severe geopolitical crises in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
Russian forces have secured control over the peninsula, but Ukraine’s government and Western nations have denounced the referendum as illegitimate and strongly warned Russia against trying to annex Crimea.
The Crimean Parliament’s declaration could put the bid to join Russia on hold, depending on the outcome of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bargaining with the West.
In Sunday’s referendum, the public will be given two options: becoming part of Russia, or remaining in Ukraine with broader powers.
Crimea, where Russia maintains its Black Sea Fleet base, became the epicenter of tensions in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych fled last month in the wake of months of protests and outbreaks of bloodshed.
Kiev-based political analyst Vadim Karasyov said the Crimean Parliament’s move is “a message to the West that there is no talk about Russia incorporating Crimea.” He said “It’s a tranquilizer for everybody — for the West and for many in Ukraine who are panicking.”
Karasyov speculated that Crimea could exist as a “quasi-legitimate” state, while Russia and the West negotiate.
After a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008, some leaders in Georgia’s breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia lobbied to join Russia, but their request was never granted.
Putin’s “task now is to get a stake in the shareholding company called Ukraine. He believes that the West now has the majority stake and he doesn’t even have a blocking package,” Karasyov said. “So Crimea is an attempt to get a blocking package.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry later said in a statement that the Crimean parliament’s action was legitimate. “Russia will respect the results of Crimea’s referendum that will be monitored by OSCE observers,” the ministry said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone Tuesday at Washington’s initiative.
“From the Russian side, the necessity was underlined of taking into complete account the interests of all Ukrainians and all regions in the search for an exit from the crisis and also the respect of the right of the residents of Crimea to determine their fate on their own in accordance with the norms of international law,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
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In a sign that some members of Putin’s entourage would prefer a negotiated solution to an all-out confrontation with the West, Konstantin Remchukov, the well-connected publisher and editor of the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, spoke strongly against annexing Crimea.
Remchukov, who avoids criticizing Putin, said on Ekho Moskvy radio that the move will trigger painful Western sanctions and cripple the Russian economy.
Remchukov said he believes Russia could negotiate a deal that would have the West guarantee the rights of Russian speakers and ensure its Black Sea Fleet’s continuing presence in Crimea. Russia could promise concessions on the Syrian and Iranian crises in response to the Western willingness to respect Russian interests in Ukraine, Remchukov suggested.
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