Crimean Parliament formally asks to join Russia

Crimea’s parliament formally applied to join the Russian Federation on Monday morning and declared its independence from Ukraine.

It follows Sunday’s controversial referendum vote in favour of leaving Ukraine.

The parliament also announced that Ukrainian laws no longer applied and that state property belongs to Crimea.

The region will also take on the Russian currency, the rouble, and will change the clocks to Moscow time (two hours ahead) by the end of March.

The head of parliament said Ukrainian military units would be disbanded although personnel would be allowed to stay on the peninsula,

Crimea’s referendum, which was declared illegal by the US and EU, showed 96.77 percent of voters in Crimea were in favour of joining Russia.

Around 83 percent of the population voted. Crimea’s Tartar population and many ethnic Ukrainians had said they would boycot the vote.

Russian President Putin will speak about Crimea at a joint session of parliament on Tuesday morning.