SIMFEROPOL, March 13 (RAPSI) – Ukraine's acting president Alexander Turchinov, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, and other officials of the newly established leadership in Kiev will be banned from entering Crimea, speaker of the Autonomous Republic‘s parliament Vladimir Konstantinov told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
“It is necessary to make a list of unwanted persons who must not cross our border and enter the territory of Crimea in the foreseeable future,” Konstantinov said. According to him, individuals linked to violence against Ukrainian police and law enforcement officers, as well as those who sympathize with them should be included in the blacklist.
On February 22, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada (parliament) impeached Viktor Yanukovich and amended the constitution. Presidential authority was assigned to parliament speaker Alexander Turchinov and a presidential election was scheduled for May 25.
Russia has referred to the events that have unfolded in Ukraine recently as a coup, and the armed seizure of power. President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference earlier in March that Yanukovich, who fled to Russia, remains Ukraine’s legitimate president.
Yanukovich said earlier at a press conference that he was forced to leave Ukraine under threat to his life.
Crimea, a peninsula of some 2 million people, has resisted the authority of the leadership that came to power in Kiev last month. Crimea’s Supreme Council on Tuesday adopted a declaration supporting independence from Ukraine. Crimea will be declared an independent state with a republican form of government if the referendum set for March 16 results in the decision to join the Russian Federation.