[An Nahar] Russian President Vladimir Putin...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
on Sunday told U.S. President Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
in telephone talks that the referendum on the Ukrainian region of Crimea joining Russia was "completely in line with the norms of international law," the Kremlin said.
Putin also told the U.S. president that any Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission in Ukraine should cover "all Ukrainian regions" and not just Crimea.
But the two leaders also agreed that "despite the differences..., it is necessary to jointly search for ways of stabilizing the situation in Ukraine," the Kremlin added.
An overwhelming 95.5 percent of Crimeans voted Sunday to become part of Russia in a referendum deemed illegal by the new authorities in Ukraine and most of the international community, exit polls showed.
With 50 percent of ballots counted, referendum commission chairman Mykhaylo Malyshev said 3.5 percent had voted to remain in Ukraine with wider autonomous powers and 1.0 percent were "spoiled ballots."
"This referendum is contrary to Ukraine's constitution, and the international community will not recognize the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention that violates international law," White House front man Jay Carney said.