What is the significance of this vote? How will it affect South-Eastern Ukraine? How will China and the West react? And, what can we expect next? CrossTalking with George Galloway, Michael Hughes and Dmitry Babich. [...]

The people of Crimea have returned to Russia. Their right of self-determination has been honored. However, the west does not honor a peaceful referendum like in Crimea, and instead prefer to acknowledge the coup installed neon-fascist government of Kiev. [...]

Shortly before the planned Crimea referendum, the West has increased pressure on Russia. Those efforts could backfire, warn two experts at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. They shed light on the way Vladimir Putin views Europe as a threat. [...]

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has published a reciprocal sanctions list of US citizens, consisting of 10 names, including: House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, Senator J. McCain; and advisers to President Obama D. Pfeiffer and C. Atkinson. [...]

The EU has imposed new sanctions to prevent Vladimir Putin from further escalating the crisis in Ukraine. Berlin has played a leading role in the punitive actions, despite protests from the German business community. There's no turning back for Merkel. [...]

The US will not get involved in a "€œmilitary excursion"€ in Ukraine, President Barack Obama said, stressing that Washington will pursue diplomatic means in the standoff with Russia over Crimea. "We are not going to be getting into a military excursion in Ukraine," Obama told San Diego’s KNSD TV. [...]

Russian president delivers speech laced with patriotic bluster and anger at west, saying Russia has been "cheated again and again." Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of Crimea on Tuesday in a searing speech to assembled political elites in Moscow shot through with angry rhetoric about western aggression and hypocrisy. [...]

Ron Paul is once again speaking up about the situation in Crimea, and this time the former congressman is condemning critics from his own country who are seemingly obsessed with the recent secession. The former Republican representative for Texas told RT earlier this month that he didn’t think the United States had any business meddling in overseas affairs and that worsening tensions in Ukraine [...]

The Republic of Crimea has addressed the UN seeking recognition as a sovereign state and called on Russia to integrate it into the Russian Federation. 96.77 percent of the Crimean population voted "€˜for"€™ the integration in a referendum. "The Republic of Crimea intends to build its relations with other states on the basis of equality, peace, mutual neighborly cooperation, and other generally [...]

While the Crimean referendum tops world media headlines, an attempt at secession is going on in Veneto, Italy, with its major city Venice. But as it is being virtually ignored by media, people in Europe are hardly aware of what'€™s happening next door. “Do you mean the independence of Crimea?” says a Berlin resident when RT’s Irina Galushko asks him of what he thinks of the current referen [...]

The leader of ultranationalist group Right Sector, Dmitry Yarosh, has threatened to destroy Russian pipelines on Ukrainian territory if a diplomatic solution is not reached with Moscow. In a fiery address loaded warmongering rhetoric, Yarosh told his followers they should be ready to resist the Russian “occupiers.” [...]

Activists in eastern Ukraine in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions are blocking columns of heavy military equipment heading from Kiev to the border with Russia. Late Thursday activists from the Donbass people's militia blocked the way of columns with about 20 trucks carrying heavy military equipment near Donetsk heading to the Russian border, [...]

So, let’s get this straight. The United States is all for democracy and democracy is about voting and making sure the majority rules. If a majority in Crimea votes to align itself with Russia because most Crimeans have an affinity for Russia, the United States and the United Nations, the latter sitting on the lap of the former, will decide democracy is illegal. [...]

Washington'€™s decision to provide financial aid to the coup-appointed government of Ukraine goes against the US laws, Russia'€™s Foreign Ministry said, urging American politicians to think about the consequences of supporting the radicals in Kiev. Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor Yanukovich, said on Tuesday that the US plans to loan $1 billion to the country’s new authorities are illega [...]

Washington threatens further action against Russia if Vladimir Putin uses poll to legitimise military occupation, says Kiev envoy. America's ambassador in Kiev said the US would refuse to recognise next Sunday's "so-called referendum" in Crimea, and said Washington would take further steps against Russia if it used the poll to legitimise its occupation. [...]

Is Russia bluffing, or is the world as we know it about to change for ever? On Tuesday Reuters reported that a Kremlin aid Sergei Glazyev had announced that if the U.S. were to impose sanctions on Russia Moscow may drop the dollar as a reserve currency... [...]

The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the US State Department of double standards and low-level propaganda after it published a list of President Vladimir Putin'€™s "€œfalse claims" about the events in Ukraine. [...]

Seumas Milne: The external struggle to dominate Ukraine has put fascists in power and brought the country to the brink of conflict. Diplomatic pronouncements are renowned for hypocrisy and double standards. But western denunciations of Russian intervention in Crimea have reached new depths of self parody. [...]

According to an early March poll the Russian President's rating remains at its highest in the last two years and researchers list the Sochi Olympics and moves for a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis as possible reasons. [...]

The Crimean parliament has voted for the region to join Russia. The decision will only come in force if approved by the Crimeans at a referendum which will be held in 10 days. Crimean MPs voted on Thursday for the region to “to become part of the Russian Federation as its constituent territory,” says the text of the regional parliament’s statement. [...]

Ukrainian and Western refusal to answer Moscow'€™s hard questions explains Russia'€™s tough stance on the crisis in Kiev. Ignoring Russian concerns is a western habit adopted after the Soviet Union’s collapse; when NATO bombed Yugoslavia; during the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state, and the US push to install an anti-missile shield over Europe that can target Russia. [...]

Ukraine'€™s statement at the UN that "€˜16,000 Russian soldiers had been deployed"€™ across Crimea sparked a MSM feeding frenzy that steadfastly ignored any hard facts that got in their way. Especially unwelcome is the fact that the so-called ‘invasion force’ has been there for 15 years already. [...]