Government
Crimea's Controversial Election Day
According to officials, nearly 97 percent of the ethnically diverse peninsula voted yesterday to secede from Ukraine.
Despite international condemnation of yesterday's referendum, Crimea is moving closer to joining the Russian Federation. Officials in the regional capital of Simferopol announced that 96.7 of voters supported a secession from Ukraine.
Government officials have given Crimeans the day off work today after declaring their independence from Ukraine. Sergei Aksyonov, the new prime minister of Crimea, told Russian state television that a delegation from the region will be arriving in Moscow to discuss the annexation process. According to the New York Times, Russian president Vladimir Putin has not declared his intent to annex Crimea as of this morning, but he's scheduled to make a speech on the issue tomorrow.