Crimeans Vote to Join Russia

I've got errands to run and some cleanup to do around the apartment today, so I'll be having more on this later. It's a big story.

At USA Today, "Exit polls show Crimeans vote to join Russia."

And at Telegraph UK, "Ukraine crisis: landslide victory for Russia in Crimea vote":

Rising tensions in Ukraine as Russia claims victory in Crimea referendum.

Exit polls in #Crimea indicate 93% voted for joining Russia. Who would have doubted it. http://t.co/RoVj7nhI1q

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 16, 2014

Here is a bit more from Roland Oliphant on the result this evening after polls close in Crimea:

"Crimea voted overwhelmingly for unification with Russia on Thursday according to exit polls, in a vote that critics have condemned as illegitimate, illegal, and neither free nor fair.

Exit polls announced on Russian Television claimed 93 percent of voters who turned out for Sunday’s referendum voted for unification with Russia.

The poll suggested seven percent of voters opted for a second option of sweeping autonomy within Ukraine, carried out by a Simferopol based organisation called the Republican Institute for Political and Social Research.

The high vote chimes with straw-polls conducted by journalists at polling stations, and likely reflects a boycott by anti-secessionist voters. Refat Chubarov, the head of the Mejlis, a representative body of the Crimean Tatars, called on people of all nationalities to stay away from what he has called an illegal and illegitimate vote.

Of dozens of voters of three Crimean towns visited by Telegraph journalists on Sunday, not one admitted to voting against the poll.

Western governments have universally condemned the referendum, saying it violates Ukrainian and international law, and is neither free nor fair.

Ukrainian law requires a nation-wide referendum on any change to the country’s borders.

Queues were already building at polling stations before polls opened at 8 AM on Sunday morning.

Sergei Aksyonov, the pro-Russian prime minister who became a member of the Russians, voted early on Sunday morning.

Preparations for unification celebrations were already underway in central Simferopol hours before polls closed at 8 PM on Sunday night.

More at WaPo, "Crimeans vote amid allegations of intimidation."