Crimea Referendum Strains East-West Relations

By Nick Martin, News Correspondent in Simferopol

The Crimean people will vote in an referendum widely expected to transfer control of the Black Sea region from Ukraine to Moscow, despite an outcry and threat of sanctions from the West.

The vote, dismissed by Kiev and Western governments as illegal, has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War and marks a new peak in turmoil in Ukraine.

It follows events in November when the now ousted President Viktor Yanukovych walked out on a trade deal with the European Union sparking violent protests in Kiev.

More than 2000 polling stations and two million ballot cards have been hastily printed since the referendum was announced more than two weeks ago.

But the vote has split even the closest-knit families many of whom say they want their peninsula to be governed in different ways.

Election commission officials count ballots ahead of the referendum

Elena Kruglova, 26, said Crimea should remain part of Ukraine while her mother Lyna Losyeva is staunchly pro-Russian.

She said: "Two weeks to organise a referendum doesn't give people the chance to make a proper decision.

"At the moment, the way the referendum works their are two choices, Russia, or Russia.

"We are not being given the option to stay the way we are."

But her mother, who remembers being part of the former Soviet Union until Ukraine gained independence in 1991, disagrees.

She said: "I was born in a time when there was no difference between Russia and Ukraine and in the Soviet Union we didn't feel any differences.

"But my daughter was born in a different time.

"What do I expect from Russia? I expect that Russia will listen to us, to Crimean people because for 23 years Ukraine didn't listen to us."

Earlier this week Crimea's new Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov told Crimeans to "be calm and hopeful" and told reporters the referendum would be "open and transparent".

Polling booths are readied for the crucial breakaway vote

International observers were finally allowed into the region on Saturday having been prevented from crossing the border for several weeks.

More than 20,000 Russian troops are now stationed within Crimea whilst Ukrainian television channels have been taken off air and replaced by programmes operated by Moscow.

Flights from Kiev in the north have been cancelled in the run up to the election with the promise of them being reinstated after the vote.

Despite Russian's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry talking daily since the crisis began a diplomatic solution has not been reached.

Johannes Anderson, an expert in Crimean affairs, believes Russia has a "grand plan" for Crimea.

He said: "I think there's been a long-time dream for Russia to reincorporate Crimea into the Greater Russian empire.

"This is a broader trend of Russia pushing its imperial ambitions.

"Ukraine has been growing and emerging as an economy in recent years and this is Russia attempting to destabilise that growth and stamp its authority on the region."

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