MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday will address an assembly of both houses of parliament, as well as heads of regions and representatives of public organizations about the request by Ukraine’s Crimea to become part of Russia, the Kremlin said Monday.
The referendum in the autonomous republic within Ukraine, which was held on Sunday amid an ongoing political crisis in the country, is at the center of the most serious geopolitical showdown between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.
With 100 percent of the ballots counted, some 96.7 percent of voters in Crimea backed reunification with Russia after 60 years as part of Ukraine.
Crimea’s regional assembly, which ignored an order to dissolve itself by the Ukrainian parliament Saturday, plans to send a formal request to Moscow to join Russia on Monday.
The Russian parliament is expected to announce its decision on Crimea’s fate in the near future, the deputy speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Monday.
