Delegation is expected in Moscow to discuss procedures for joining as referendum chief publicly defends the election

Link to video: Crimea referendum: 96.8% vote to join Russia

Crimea's regional parliament has declared independence and applied to become part of the Russian Federation, a day after people in the Black Sea peninsula voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine in a referendum that most of the world has condemned as illegal.

The parliament "made a proposal to the Russian Federation to admit the Republic of Crimea as a new subject with the status of a republic", according to a statement on its website.

A Crimean parliamentary delegation was expected to arrive in Moscow on Monday to discuss the procedures required for the region to become part of the Russian Federation. Final results showed that 96.8% of voters were in favour of joining Russia, the head of the referendum commission said. Mikhail Malyshev told a televised news conference that the commission has not registered a single complaint about the vote.

Russia's lower house of parliament will pass legislation allowing Ukraine's southern Crimea region to join Russia "in the very near future", news agency Interfax cited its deputy speaker as saying on Monday morning.

"Results of the referendum in Crimea clearly showed that residents of Crimea see their future only as part of Russia," Sergei Neverov was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's interim government endorsed a presidential decree to carry out a partial mobilisation involving 40,000 reservists. Andriy Paruby, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, told parliament that 20,000 reservists would be deployed in the armed forces and the rest in the newly created National Guard.

As the results rolled in, they were met with neither surprise nor welcome by the west. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, told Barack Obama in a phone call on Sunday night that the referendum endorsing Crimea becoming part of Russia was legal and should be accepted, according to the Kremlin. However, Obama said the US rejected the results and warned that Washington was ready to impose sanctions on Moscow over the crisis.

Measures could include visa bans and potential asset freezes in wake of Crimean vote to rejoin Russia

Pro-Russians celebrate after Crimea referendum - video

The US and its allies in Europe are expected to announce sanctions against Russia, including visa bans and potential asset freezes, one day after Crimeans voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.

The US president, Barack Obama, told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Sunday that Crimea's vote "would never be recognised" by the United States, as he and other US officials warned Moscow against making further military moves toward southern and eastern Ukraine.

The leaders spoke after people in Crimea voted overwhelmingly in favour of the split in a referendum that the US, European Union and others said violated the Ukrainian constitution and international law and took place in the strategic peninsula under duress of Russian military intervention. Putin maintained that the vote was legal and consistent with the right of self-determination, according to the Kremlin.

Russia's lower house of parliament will pass legislation allowing the Crimea region to join Russia "in the very near future", Interfax news agency said on Monday, quoting the chamber's deputy speaker.

CIA director John Brennan told a senior lawmaker Monday that a 1997 treaty between Russia and Ukraine allows up to 25,000 Russia troops in the vital Crimea region, so Russia may not consider its recent troop movements to be an invasion, U.S. officials said.

The number of Russian troops that have surged into Ukraine in recent days remains well below that threshold, Brennan said, according to U.S. officials who declined to be named in describing private discussions and declined to name the legislator.

Though Brennan disagrees that the treaty justifies Russia's incursion, he urged a cautious approach, the officials said. Administration officials have said Moscow violated the treaty, which requires the Russian navy, which bases its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, to coordinate all military movements on the Crimean peninsula with Ukraine.]

The next day, Russian troops took up positions around key facilities in Crimea, and by nightfall the CIA assessed that Russia was in control of the region, officials said.

"This was not predicted," said a U.S. official, who asked not to be named in discussing the classified briefings.

The intelligence officials defended their analysis, however, saying Putin may have made a spur of the moment decision to take military action.

Do you, like 56 percent of the US population, believe that the US should "not get too involved" in the Ukraine situation? Do you think that the US administration putting us on a war footing with Russia is a bad idea? Are you concerned that the new, US-backed leaders of Ukraine -- not being elected -- might lack democratic legitimacy? Are you tempted to speak out against US policy in Ukraine; are you tempted to criticize the new Ukrainian regime?

Be careful what you say. Be careful what you write. President Obama has just given himself the authority to seize your assets.

According to the president's recent Executive Order, "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine" (first reported by WND's Aaron Klein), the provisions for seizure of property extend to "any United States person." That means "any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States."

Declaring a "national emergency" over the planned referendum in Crimea to determine whether or not to join Russia, the US president asserts that asset seizure is possible for any US person "determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State":

(i) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly, any of the following:

(A) actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine;

(B) actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine; or

(C) misappropriation of state assets of Ukraine or of an economically significant entity in Ukraine;

The Libyan former prime minister Ali Zeidan fled last week after parliament voted him out of office. A North Korean-flagged oil tanker, the Morning Glory, illegally picked up a cargo of crude from rebels in the east of the country and sailed safely away, despite a government minister's threat that the vessel would be "turned into a pile of metal" if it left port: the Libyan navy blamed rough weather for its failure to stop the ship. Militias based in Misrata, western Libya, notorious for their violence and independence, have launched an offensive against the eastern rebels in what could be the opening shots in a civil war between western and eastern Libya.

Without a central government with any real power, Libya is falling apart. And this is happening almost three years after 19 March 2011 when the French air force stopped Mu'ammer Gaddafi's counter-offensive to crush the uprising in Benghazi. Months later, his burnt-out tanks still lay by the road to the city. With the United States keeping its involvement as low-profile as possible, Nato launched a war in which rebel militiamen played a secondary, supportive role and ended with the overthrow and killing of Gaddafi.

With President Obama's declaration last week of a National Emergency as the result of the ongoing Ukraine crisis, the President has moved one giant step closer to declaring an outright dictatorship over the United States. Obama has put himself in a state of "pre-impeachment," declared Lyndon LaRouche on March 6.

His actions also moved the world precariously closer to a military confrontation between the United States and Russia that could lead to thermonuclear World War III. The biggest obstacle to war prevention, LaRouche further warned in discussion with colleagues on March 8, is the cowardice and Wall Street-induced corruption of the U.S. Congress, which is the main obstacle to Obama's immediate removal from office via impeachment or by invoking the 25th Amendment.

In a brief press statement late last week, Obama announced that the Ukraine crisis posed a direct threat to the national security of the United States, and for that reason, he was invoking a National Emergency via Executive Order. In that brief statement, and the Order that accompanied it, the President violated the law by failing to present any findings of fact backing his declaration of emergency.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged Washington on Saturday to join a "high-level commission" to promote peace after more than a month of deadly anti-government demonstrations.

Maduro blames the United States for the riots, a charge US officials on Friday dismissed as "absurd."

At least 28 people have been killed and 400 injured in the student-led protests that began February 4 in western Venezuela and spread to Caracas and other cities.

Oil-rich Venezuela has seen almost daily anti-government demos as tens of thousands of people vent their rage over the soaring crime rate, spiraling inflation, and a lack of household goods in the markets.

There was another phone call today between Secretary of State Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. The call came after a strategy meeting on Ukraine in the White House. During the call Kerry agreed to Russian demands for a federalization of the Ukraine in which the federal states will have a strong autonomy against a neutralized central government. Putin had offered this "off-ramp" from the escalation and Obama has taken it.

The Russian announcement:

Lavrov, Kerry agree to work on constitutional reform in Ukraine

(Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed on Sunday to seek a solution to crisis in Ukraine by pushing for constitutional reforms there, the Russian foreign ministry said.It did not go into details on the kind of reforms needed except to say they should come "in a generally acceptable form and while taking into the account the interests of all regions of Ukraine".
...
"Sergei Lavrov and John Kerry agreed to continue work to find a resolution on Ukraine through a speedy launch of constitutional reform with the support of international community," the ministry said in a statement.

In recent weeks Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone from being a relatively obscure leader of the Russian Federation to a house-hold name around the world. As part of that process, he has been subjected to 'trial by Western media', and the judgement is conclusive: he's a 'thug' determined to reestablish the Soviet Union at the expense of the people of Ukraine who simply want some good old fashioned freedom and democracy.

But is the portrayal of Putin accurate, or even close to accurate?

From his political origins as an agent of Russia's FSB, to his nomination as Prime Minister amid 'Chechen terrorist attacks' on Russian civilians, to his current confrontation with the American Empire over Ukraine, Crimea and much more, this week we'll be delving into the details and asking the question, 'Who is Vladimir Putin?'

Running Time: 01:53:00

Download: MP3

The official website of the Crimean referendum is down due to a cyber-attack that originated from the US, Crimean authorities say.

The exact location from which the website's servers were attacked was Illinois University, Crimean minister of information and mass communications Dmitry Polonsky told Itar-Tass news agency.

"This place turned out to be the Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign. A massive scanning of the servers took place from there before the attack," Polonsky said.

The assault started during the night (2300 GMT Saturday). At 1000 GMT Sunday, the referendum2014.ru site still wasn't functioning.