Russian state media is reporting that Crimeans have voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia, and why would Russian state media lie about something like that?
With over half the votes counted, 95.5 percent — a large number, sure, but not suspicious in any way — of voters have chosen annexation by Moscow. We know these figures are legitimate because they have been reported by Mikhail Malyshev, the head of the referendum commission.
The referendum has been denounced as unlawful by the acting Ukrainian government. Crimeans literally voted under the gun, with thousands of heavily armed Russian soldiers and several pro-Russian militia units manning the hastily constructed polling booths. We're pretty sure they were just there to help with the sausage sizzle.
Voters had the clear option of joining Crimea with the Russian Federation as a subject of Russian Federation, or restoring the 1992 Crimean Constitution and Crimea's status as a part of Ukraine.
The latter option would have left Crimea free to choose its own path, and under Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov, who knows what path they would have chosen? The possibilities were endless!
"Referendum will take place as the people want, and it will be inexorable and peremptory," the pro-Kremlin Aksyonov tweeted this morning. "Crimea will become part of Russia!"
For whatever reason, the White House, the US president's National Security Council, and the EU have condemned the referendum.
