15:51
25.5.2014
15:55
25.5.2014
This just in from AFP on Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Crimea:
SEVASTOPOL, May 25, 2014 (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Crimea to hand out passports during Ukraine's presidential vote on Sunday, in a move denounced by Kiev as a "deliberate provocation".
In a symbolic demonstration of Moscow's hold over the peninsula it annexed in March, Medvedev began the two-day surprise visit by going to a migration office to hand out Russian passports.
"Best of luck with your new Russian passport," Medvedev told a young blonde woman at the office in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, in images shown on Russian television.
The head of the Russian federal migration service who accompanied Medvedev, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said that 850,000 passports were in the process of being distributed to Crimeans and that another 900,000 were being printed.
The region has a population of about two million.
In Kiev, the foreign ministry slammed the visit, Medvedev's second to Crimea since the Russian takeover.
"A visit by the Russian prime minister to occupied Ukraine on the day of the presidential election in Ukraine is particular impudence and a deliberate provocation aimed at destabilising the situation in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement issued moments after Medvedev's arrival.
In a symbolic demonstration of Moscow's hold over the peninsula it annexed in March, Medvedev began the two-day surprise visit by going to a migration office to hand out Russian passports.
"Best of luck with your new Russian passport," Medvedev told a young blonde woman at the office in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, in images shown on Russian television.
The head of the Russian federal migration service who accompanied Medvedev, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said that 850,000 passports were in the process of being distributed to Crimeans and that another 900,000 were being printed.
The region has a population of about two million.
In Kiev, the foreign ministry slammed the visit, Medvedev's second to Crimea since the Russian takeover.
"A visit by the Russian prime minister to occupied Ukraine on the day of the presidential election in Ukraine is particular impudence and a deliberate provocation aimed at destabilising the situation in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement issued moments after Medvedev's arrival.
16:00
25.5.2014
And the meme that Poroshenko won outright continues. I guess we'll know in a couple hours...
16:02
25.5.2014
Amd for some comic relief, a funny tweet from Andrew Roth of "The New York Times":
16:06
25.5.2014
16:16
25.5.2014
Just to repeat: The head of Russia's human rights group Memorial, Aleksandr Cherkasov, identified the Russian interpreter who died in eastern Ukraine yesterday along with Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli as Andrei Mironov.
Mironov is a Soviet-era dissident and former member of Memorial. He was 60.
They were killed near Slovyansk, which has been one of the most violent parts of the country since the separatist uprising began.
16:20
25.5.2014
From RFE'RL's Glenn Kates:
16:34
25.5.2014
16:35
25.5.2014
16:35
25.5.2014