MOSCOW, March 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday submitted the Crimea reunification treaty to the parliament for ratification, the legislature’s press service said.
Earlier in the day, the treaty was unanimously approved by the Russian Constitutional Court.
The president also submitted a draft federal constitutional law to make Crimea a part of Russia.
The bill automatically gives Russian citizenship to all Crimean residents and makes them eligible for Russian pensions and other social benefits.
It sets September 13, 2015, as a date for regional elections into local administrative bodies.
Crimea, previously an autonomous republic within Ukraine with a Russian ethnic majority, signed a reunification treaty with Moscow on Tuesday following a referendum Sunday in which some 96.7 percent of voters backed joining Russia after 60 years as part of Ukraine.
The move has sparked the most serious geopolitical showdown between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.
