Former Japanese PM Says Crimea Referendum ‘Expressed Will of Its People’

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, in Crimea this week as part of a good will visit, says that discussions with local residents have convinced him that the peninsula’s referendum to rejoin Russia was a real expression of the will of its people.

Yukio Hatoyama, the Japanese ex-Prime Minister who had gained the ire of Tokyo for his visit to Crimea this week to find out “what the local residents indeed feel” about the March 2014 reunification with Russia, has expressed that in his view, the referendum was “constitutional and expressed the real will of the Crimean people.”

“I have listened to a variety of points of view, and have discovered that the referendum in the Crimea was conducted in accordance with the Ukrainian constitution, peacefully, according to democratic procedure, and has expressed the real will of the Crimean people,” Hatoyama noted at a press conference in Simferopol, RIA Novosti reports.

The former Prime Minister added that he believes that his task now is to offer “Japanese society the truth about the democratic nature of the Crimean population’s will to become part of Russia.”

Hotoyama, arriving in Crimea on Tuesday, explained before his visit: “I want to see with my own eyes how people in Crimea are feeling.” He noted that in addition to gauging local opinion, he “could possibly promote the development of cultural and humanitarian ties between Crimea and Japan.”

 

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that “the visit to Crimea of a politician who used to serve as prime minister is an extremely thoughtless move, which is deeply regretful.”The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Vice President, Masahiko Komura, added that Hatoyama’s visit does not correspond to the official Japanese position and is “misleading to the international community.”

Last week, in the run up to the visit, the Japanese Foreign Ministry had strongly recommended that Hatoyama cancel his visit to the peninsula.

 

Hatoyama, who now heads the “Japan-Russia Society” and organizes an annual festival of Russian-Japanese cultural exchange, is expected to meet with the Crimean leadership later this week. Hatoyama does not support the policy of Western sanctions against Russia, and believes relations between Tokyo and Moscow must be improved as soon as possible. The former politician has earlier argued that Japan was pressured to join in on the sanctions, noting that the country must pursue a foreign policy “fully independent…from its American partners.”Japan joined in with Western anti-Russian sanctions March, 2014, postponing talks on international investment, collaboration in space research and plans for a simplified visa regime. In addition, 40 Russian citizens and two Russian companies were put on a black list. Japan has not recognized the results of the Crimea referendum on independence from Ukraine and reunification with Russia.

R

Putin explained why he decided to return Crimea to Russia

 

March 10,  MOSCOW
According to him, he could not throw people living there under ‘steamroller of nationalists’

Vladimir Putin

© Alexei Druzhinin/Russian presidential press service/TASS

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin says he took the decision to reunify with Crimea because he could not throw people “under a steamroller of nationalists,” according to a documentary Way Home aired on Rossiya-1 television channel.

“It was the night from February 22 to February 23. We finished at about seven in the morning. And when we were leaving, frankly speaking, I told my colleagues (and there were four of them): ‘The situation in Ukraine has turned such a way that we are forced to begin efforts to reunify with Crimea, because we cannot leave this territory and people living there to the mercy of fate, we cannot throw them under a steamroller of nationalists,” the Russian president said in an interview with the documentary.

He said that at that point he “set certain tasks and told what and how we should do but stressed that we would do it only if we were absolutely sure that people living in Crime wanted the same.”

As for the operation to evacuate Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovich, “our radio surveillance services as a matter of fact were tracing his cars” and each time he made a telephone call spotted his location, Putin said.

OSCE Ignores Referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions – Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – A report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has ignored the referendums held by Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions on self-determination, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.

“The OSCE’s report made a passing mention of those referenda [Luhansk and Donetsk Regions], and did not even mention a voting was held…ignoring such a great event is certainly, absolutely inadmissible,” Lukashevich said.

The Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in eastern Ukraine declared themselves sovereign states on Monday, following May 11 referendums on self-determination. Almost 90 percent of voters endorsed political independence from Kiev.

Donetsk is planning to ask Moscow to join Russia. The Luhansk leadership has also said it does not rule out the possibility of a referendum on becoming part of Russia.

Both republics have begun establishing government agencies, with leaders stating that they would not take part in the upcoming May 25 presidential election.

Moscow said it respected the will of the people in Ukraine’s southeastern provinces and hoped the regime in Kiev would do the same. The US and EU have denounced the results of the vote.

Donetsk republic to get down to resolving its social, economic, defense problems

MOSCOW, May 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Following Sunday’s referendum on the future of the Donetsk region, the authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic will roll up their sleeves to resolve the social and economic tasks the region is faced with and they will take up the problem of organizing its Armed Forces, Denis Pushilin, the co-chairman of the DPR says in an interview published Tuesday by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

“A de facto civil war is being waged on our territory,” he says. “There are many military bases here and we should decide on what’s to be done about their contingents. They either change over to our side or else they are declared occupation troops, which makes them subject to expulsion.”

Pushilin indicates that active work with the military is underway now and “there are many encouraging signals in return.”

Among the social and economic tasks, which the DPR will have to untangle in the first place, he named pensions and the salaries in the budget-receiving sector in the Donetsk Coalfields area.

“We still have some monies left, as Kiev remitted some amounts,” Pushilin says. “As for now, we’ll have to see. We’ll continue using the hrivna for the time being but a switch-over to some other monetary unit is unavoidable in the future.”

Also, the authorities plan to set up new agencies of state power. All of these steps will be take “over the shortest possible term.”

He mentions the operations of industrial facilities located in the region, saying they are working as usual. “For the most part, the industries here are oriented at Russia and the Eurasian Customs Union countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia) and it would be totally irrational to break these ties up,” Pushilin says.

He confirms the intention of the DPR authorities to appeal to the UN for a recognition of the republic as a sovereign state.

“We are planning an appeal to the UN for declaring us a sovereign state but we don’t hope to get a positive answer, frankly speaking, because the West’s position towards us,” Pushilin says. “The West’s stance towards us is all too obvious but we won’t be particularly upset either because we know only too well what we were embarking on.”

May 11, people in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine voted in referendums on the status of their regions. The electoral commissions there said almost 80% registered voters had come to the polls amid the continuing punitive operation led by the Armed Forces, paramilitaries of the ‘national guard’ and rightwing radical militants.

The referendums were held in the wake of formation of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic, which were declared in April.

As a result of Sunday’s polling, 89.7% residents in Donetsk and 96.2% residents in Lugansk voted in favor of independence.

Putin to Clarify Stance on Ukraine Referendum After Results Announced – Report

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will formulate his opinion towards the referendums in two southeastern Ukrainian regions held on Sunday after their official results are made public, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Kommersant newspaper.

“It is difficult to forecast,” Peskov told the newspaper.

Putin had urged pro-federalization activists to put off the referendum to ensure the start of national dialog to resolve the ongoing crisis in the country, but the vote in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was held as scheduled on Sunday.

Asked whether Putin’s position would be affected by this decision to hold the referendum, Peskov said that the Russian president “did not request but gave such a recommendation.”

“However, even taking into account the authority of the Russian president, it was difficult to listen to this [advice]. Amid real battle actions being held, citizens were forced to act in line with their own plan and judge from the situation,” Peskov said.

He dismissed criticism by the US and EU towards Russia saying: “Why could not the West have prevented the use of armored vehicles in Slaviansk and Kramatorsk and avoid the shooting of civilians. They did not use their influence and they are alright with this, and Russia is the one to blame,” he said.

Peskov dismissed the possible new sanctions against Moscow, accusing the West of pursuing its goals in the region. “They do not care how the agreements are fulfilled, if there is a dialog or shooting has ended. Their aim is to hold elections and close a legal issue on the legitimacy of the coup they had organized,” he said.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that talking in the language of sanctions is “inappropriate and counterproductive” and warned its Western partners about the “boomerang effect” that sanctions would have.

Almost 98% Vote for Self-Rule In Ukraine’s Luhansk – Election Committee

LUHANSK, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Between 94 and 98 percent of eligible voters in Ukraine’s easternmost region of Luhansk have voted for greater autonomy from the regime in Kiev, the head of the region’s Central Election Committee said Monday.

“Since this morning, 28 territorial committees have been counted, and we are waiting for statistics from territorial committees from difficult regions where the guys have fallen under the impact of [Ukraine’s] National Guard, but according to preliminary data, 94 to 98 percent have voted for independence of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” Alexander Malykhin said.

On Sunday, residents in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions went to the polls in a self-rule referendum, with ballots in Ukrainian and Russian asking whether they supported the acts of state self-determination of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

In the Luhansk region, voter turnout was over 79 percent, with the turnout in the regional capital exceeding 76 percent. In neighboring Donetsk Region, more than 70 percent came to cast their ballots despite an intensified military operation by the Kiev government.

Central Election Committee Chairman Roman Lyasin said the referendum had received the backing of at least 89.7 percent of voters in the Donetsk region, according to preliminary overnight results, with 10.2 percent voting against and 0.7 percent of ballots declared invalid.

Lyasin said the results of the Luhansk referendum were still pending, but photo and video footage from the area showed long queues in front of makeshift polling stations, with exit polls claiming the independence bid was on its way to a resounding victory.

Voting in the city of Krasnoarmiisk to the northeast of the regional capital Donetsk was disrupted after troops of the Ukrainian National Guard encircled the polling center at city hall, stopping people from taking part in the referendum and shooting at least one person dead outside the building.

Lyasin told reporters the voter turnout had reached 77.8 percent before the voting was interrupted.

The vote has been organized by Ukrainian pro-federalization activists amid the continuing special operation by the Kiev authorities to crack down on the protesters using military force, with dozens of casualties.

Serhiy Pashynsky, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said Sunday the “anti-terror operation” in Donetsk’s flashpoint cities of Kramatorsk, Slaviansk and Krasny Liman entered a “final phase” yesterday. He said Ukrainian troops had “wiped out a lot of separatists,” but didn’t cite any figures.

Earlier in the day, a representative of a regional election committee said that contact had been lost with two constituencies in Krasny Liman, after the city was “caught in the middle of hostilities.” The Interior Ministry of Ukraine also claimed it had razed all federalist-manned roadblocks on the roads to Krasny Liman.

The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine has been climbing steadily since the beginning of the month as the Kiev regime, backed by the West, continues to tighten its grip on federalist strongholds in southeastern regions of Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned Kiev’s operation as a dangerous development with Russian President Vladimir Putin urging pro-federalization activists to put off the referendum to ensure the start of national dialog to resolve the ongoing crisis.

Donetsk, Lugansk regions to hold referendums on self-determination

KIEV, May 11 /ITAR-TASS/. Federalization supporters in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions will hold referendums on self-determination on Sunday after the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic were proclaimed in April.

The vote will take place in conditions of a continuing special operation by the Kiev authorities in Ukraine’s east.

In the Donetsk Region, the question put to the referendum is the following: “Do you support the Act of Independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic?” The question has been printed in the Ukrainian and Russian languages, and the options are “yes” and “no”.

The DPR’s Central Election Commission earlier said over 3 million ballot papers have been printed for the plebiscite. All of them are in buildings of territorial election commissions.

DPR representative Boris Litvinov, in charge of the referendum issues, told Itar-Tass that polling stations will be opened at 08:00 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT).

“We expect the vote to be held at 1,540 polling stations, but the exact figure will only be named in the afternoon, as exact information will be received then,” he said. “About 18,000 people are taking part in preparation and holding of the referendum. If electioneerers are taken into account too, there are more than 25,000.”

According to Litvinov, territorial election commissions have been instructed to “determine the time when stations will close on their own, with account for the security situation”.

“In line with the rules of referendum holding, polling stations should work until 22:00. But in some towns and villages they will be open until 20:00, and there’s curfew in, say, Slavyansk, from 20:00,” he said.

Preliminary results of the referendum “will be made public as information is being received”, Litvinov said. Earlier DPR government co-chairman Denis Pushilin said the plebiscite results will be made public within three days.

Residents of the Lugansk Region will have to answer the question: “Do you support the act on state independence of the Lugansk People’s Republic?” Spokesman Vasily Nikitin told an Itar-Tass correspondent that “preparation for the referendum did not stop for any minute”.

“The vote will take place at 90% of the overall number of polling stations usually being established in the region for elections,” Nikitin said without specifying the number. “The stations will be open today until 22:00.”

Ballot papers for the will expression have already been delivered to the stations, he added, saying that voter turnout was expected to stand at 80-90% “The first results of the vote will be made public on Monday, May 12,” Nikitin said.

The presidium of the Lugansk Region council spoke for the referendum prior to the vote. “We support the initiative of Lugansk Region residents on the holding of a referendum on the status of the Lugansk Region in line with requirements adopted at meetings of territorial associations of our region,” the statement emphasized.

“We state with huge anguish: a civil war is underway in Ukraine, provoked by the current Kiev authorities and their patrons. On their conscience is the death of tens of people, mourning in hundreds of families and hatred born in the hearts of millions,” it said.

“They have labeled half a country as criminals and terrorists only because the people see the future of their native country differently than politicians who have come to power do,” the statement said. “Instead of dialogue with them, clarification of positions and search for compromises, Kiev unfolded against millions of residents not an anti- but terrorist operation.”

“This is the [authorities’] first army operation in Europe’s contemporary history against their own fellow citizens with the use of both regular troops and paramilitary formations – an open terror against the people,” it said.

Massive protests against the new Ukrainian authorities, who were propelled to power in Kiev amid riots during a coup in Ukraine in February, erupted in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking southeastern territories after the secession of the Crimean Peninsula, which declared independence and joined Russia on March 18 following a referendum.

Southeastern Ukrainian protesters demand broader powers for their regions. Some demonstrators have seized government buildings.

The Kiev authorities have been conducting what they call an antiterrorism operation in eastern Ukraine. Russia, which does not recognize the de facto Ukrainian leaders, has condemned the operation, apparently aimed to crack down on Ukrainian federalization supporters.

At least 46 people died on May 2 in clashes and a fire in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa after radicals set ablaze the Trade Unions House, where pro-federalization activists hid, and a tent camp where activists were collecting signatures for a referendum on federalization and for the status of a state language for Russian.

In the Donetsk Region city of Mariupol, Ukrainian law enforcers opened fire from armored vehicles on participants of a rally held in honor of Victory Day on May 9 who gathered near the building of the local Interior Ministry department and tried to prevent its storm.

According to representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, at least 10 people died during the fire. Television channels showed footage of law enforcers using armored vehicles against unarmed people, when people were hit by armored personnel carriers. The city council declared May 10 a day of mourning in Mariupol.

On Victory Day, May 9, Russia and other former Soviet republics marked the 69th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Moscow to Analyze Ukraine Federalists’ Decision on Referendum

MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) – The Kremlin is going to take time to analyze the situation in Ukraine after federalists in southeastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk decided to go ahead with referendums on greater autonomy, the Kremlin said Thursday.

“There is new information that needs to be analyzed,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had urged pro-federalization activists on Wednesday to put off the referendum to ensure the start of national dialog to resolve the ongoing crisis in the country.

On Thursday, authorities in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking Donetsk and Luhansk regions announced they had unanimously voted to press on with the votes scheduled for this Sunday, adding preparations were already underway.

The Secretary of Ukraine’s Committee on National Security Andry Paruby said earlier on Thursday that Kiev’s “anti-terror” operation would continue regardless of the decision of the Donetsk People’s Republic to hold a referendum on the region’s status.

Donetsk Refuses to Postpone May 11 Referendum

MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) – Federalists in Donetsk have agreed to go ahead with a referendum on self-determination planned for this Sunday.

“After the vote that was held today, the unanimous decision was to go ahead with the referendum May 11,” Co-Chairman of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s Denis Pushilin said Thursday.

The decision to press on with the referendum on greater autonomy for the southeastern Donetsk region was taken to a vote Thursday at the People’s Committee in the capital city Donetsk.

The news came after Russian President Vladimir Putin had urged pro-federalization activists on Wednesday to put off the referendum to ensure the start of national dialogue to resolve the ongoing crisis in the country.

Ukrainian authorities today said the “anti-terrorist” operation against the restive cities in the country’s south and east would continue despite the vote, with the national security chief claiming that the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) does not have the right to hold the referendum.

Citizens of the mainly Russian-speaking southeastern regions of Ukraine have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the country’s interim government and have announced referendums on self-determination in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, to be held on May 11.

In April, Kiev’s current authorities launched a special operation to crack down on the protesters, leading to violent clashes in major towns of southeastern Ukraine and dozens of casualties.

Putin Calls on Ukrainian Federalists to Put Off May 11 Vote

MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday urged pro-federalization activists in southeastern Ukraine to postpone a referendum on self-determination to ensure the start of nationwide dialogue.

“We are calling on representatives of regions in southeastern Ukraine, supporters of federalization in the country, to postpone the referendum set for May 11 in order to create all necessary conditions for this dialogue,” Putin said at a joint news conference with OSCE Chairman Didier Burkhalter in Moscow.

A protest leader in Donetsk, Alexander Vaskovsky, said there was no need to put off the vote.

“I have not yet seen Putin’s address, but there is no need to do this [postpone the vote]. I’m extremely negative about this,” he said.

Early presidential elections were scheduled for May 25 in Ukraine after the country’s elected president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted late February following the so-called Euromaidan mass rallies in Kiev.

Citizens of the mainly Russian-speaking southeastern regions of Ukraine have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the country’s interim government and have announced referendums on self-determination in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, to be held on May 11.

Kiev’s current authorities have launched a special operation to crack down on the protesters, leading to violent clashes in major towns of southeastern Ukraine and dozens of casualties. Last Friday, 46 protesters were killed and over 200 were injured in the port city of Odessa.