Bloomberg said in its report that tensions between leaders of the European Union are reopening old cracks in the bloc as they debate over sanctions it intends to impose on Russia for its military moves against Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal said that Crimea had been occupied by military de facto since the beginning of the weekend after thousands of heavily-armed men believed to be Russia's Black See Fleet members seized its borders and cut the region from the rest of Ukraine. Moreover, the newspaper said gunmen last week had taken over the Crimean Parliament and engineered the installation of a new governor, who is reportedly pro-Russia.
Bloomberg quoted Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who had told reporters present at a Brussels summit today, "(The messages from EU member countries are) not unison. Russia is trying to threaten all Europe, becoming unpredictable, and they are trying to rewrite the borders after the Second World War in Europe." The news agency has said that countries from the eastern European were calling for a tough line on Kremlin while western European countries had begged for time to consider its actions prior to imposing sanctions, which included pulling its forces in Crimea.
While EU member nations scramble over their next course of action on Russia's defiant military moves on Crimea, the Crimean Parliament reportedly voted today to conduct a March 16 referendum which will determine whether the region will remove itself under Ukraine jurisdiction and join Russia.
Russia's Federation Council's constitutional legislation and judicial issues committee member Anatoly Lyskov had told Interfax about the potential outcome of the Crimea secession vote, "If an absolute majority of citizens vote to join Russia in the referendum and a relevant request is forwarded to the president of Russia, this issue may be resolved within a very short time, like three to five days."
