Crimea hopes to remain parliamentary republic if it joins Russia - speaker Konstantinov
9 March 2014, 19:55 -- Crimea hopes to receive broader authority if it joins Russia, Speaker of the Supreme Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov said on Sunday.
"We have spoken a lot about the need to broaden our authority. We will prepare a draft constitution of the Republic of Crimea with broad powers for which we are ready," Konstantinov told a press conference in Simferopol.
Earlier, he said that Crimea hoped to preserve its status as a parliamentary republic.
A change of government bearing every sign of a violent coup d'etat occurred in Ukraine on February 22.
The Verkhovna Rada was actually forced to oust President Viktor Yanukovych, who had to flee the country because his life was under threat.
At a press conference in Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovych said that he remained the legitimately president of Ukraine. Russia questions the legitimacy of the Ukrainian parliament's latest decisions.
Crimea and a number of regions in eastern have refused to recognize Yanukovych's removal and decided to hold referendums on their future status. Voters in Crimea will go to polls on March 16.
Russian diplomat warns the West against using 'language of sanctions'
Pro-Russian supporters waves Russian flag during a concert in the centre of Sevastopol, Crimea
Russia's Charge de Mission with the country's Foreign Ministry has cautioned the West against using the 'language of sanctions' in his op-ed published by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper. 'The fabric of the modern world is held together with the tissue of globalization, so the very idea of isolating a major state, let alone a world power, should appear nonsensical a priori to any sane man,' Kirill Barsky wrote.
In his article, Barsky reminded of a similar failed attempt that the United States and its allies made on 3-4 January 1989 when they tried to impose a series of diplomatic and economic sanctions against China, following the death of protesters in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing.
Barsky said Washington had initiated a global action to put pressure on China by first scrapping its bilateral cooperation with the People's Republic. It froze all manner of political and military contacts and imposed a moratorium on Chinese military exports. Next came a package of broad economic sanctions against Beijing that was endorsed by the US Congress in June and July 1989, while George Bush Sr. ordered US representatives in global financial institutions to postpone World Bank loans to China.
The Russian diplomat stressed that US-initiated sanctions against China meant that the rest of the world, including countries who would profit from stable economic relations with Beijing, found itself on the horns of a largely artificial dilemma. This man-made split was the source of more tension globally.
'Did the actions of the US and its allies make the world a more democratic, fairer, safer and calmer place? Did they help build trust between nations, which is essential to combating global modern challenges? What was the practical use of these actions? How did their initiators profit from them? These are all purely rhetoric questions,' Kirill Barsky asked.
'The lessons that we should have learnt from the failed isolation of China after the tragedy in Tiananmen Square are self-evident. You cannot speak the language of sanctions in the modern world.'
'As interdependency and unpredictability in international relations continue to grow, every ill-conceived step is prone to trigger a domino effect and hit its initiator like a boomerang,' the Russian Foreign Office envoy concluded.
He called on world powers to give up their brute-force approach and choose the path of mutually respectful dialog that would be guided by international laws.
Voice of Russia, TASS, Interfax.
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