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Crimea Is in Path of Ukraine to NATO
The overwhelming majority of Crimea’s residents opposed the NATO policy of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at All-Crimea’s People’s Referendum on Ukraine’s Entry into NATO. The event was held in Crimea Autonomous Republic of Ukraine past Saturday.
The spearheads of All-Crimea’s People’s Referendum were the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Social-Democratic (United) Party. “Do you agree with the policy of President Viktor Yushchenko in part of Ukraine’s entry into NATO?” was the sole question posed to the residents of Crimea. The answer of 98.7 percent was negative, which is rather illustrative the more so that this large-scale action of Communists was attended by nearly 900,000 residents of Crimea, i.e. roughly 58.21 percent of all voters, according to the committee of arrangers.
To celebrate the victory, Crimea’s communists staged a rally of around 500 on the Lenin Square in Simferopol. The slogans were: “NATO Is the Slavery for Slavs!”, “Crimea Is the Anti-NATO Foothold!”, “Ukraine Is Out of Blocs!”
But the referendum of European integration opponents will have no legal consequences. It was rather a political action aimed at manifesting the actual attitude of Crimea to “drawing Ukraine into NATO,” the arrangers said.
The absence of legal aftereffect of the referendum was confirmed in the office of Ukrainian president in Crimea. “Political forces that convene and support this action don’t respect the constitutional fundamentals of democracy that exist in Ukraine,” spokesmen of the office said. The office even addressed the Justice Ministry of Ukraine urging it to come up with political evaluation of the referendum actions of the Communist Party.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 18, 2006
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