MOSCOW — Russia signaled for the first time on Friday that it was prepared to annex Crimea, significantly intensifying its confrontation with the West over the political crisis in Ukraine and threatening to undermine a system of respect for national boundaries that has helped keep the peace in Europe and elsewhere for decades. Leaders of both houses of Russia’s Parliament said that they would support a vote by Crimeans to break away from Ukraine and become a region of the Russian Federation, ignoring sanctions threats and warnings from the United States and other countries that a vote for secession would violate Ukraine’s constitution and international law. Even as tensions flared between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Crimea, the moves by Russia raised the specter of a protracted conflict over the status of Crimea, which Russian forces occupied a week ago, calling into question not only Russia’s relations with the West but also post-cold-war agreements on the sovereignty of the nations that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 00:04:33 +0000
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