Crimea has switched to Moscow time, symbolically concluding the inclusion of the former Ukrainian region into Russia.
Clocks struck midnight at the same time as those in Moscow on Saturday.
Several hundred people including Crimea’s new Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov gathered on the railway square in Simferopol Saturday night to watch the railway station clock ceremonially switch from 10:00 p.m. to midnight local time.
“I greet you with our return home,” Aksyonov told the crowd who later sang the Russian national anthem.
“I am confident that all that we have done is to the benefit of Crimea and Crimeans.”
Crimea has already implemented the Russian rouble as its official currency. It has also started pension and state salary reimbursements to its citizens.
Russian officials have begun working alongside Crimean authorities to bring the region’s legal and tax regulations in line with the Russian ones.
Crimean officials will also urge Moscow to help upgrade the region economically.
Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17 and formally applied to become part of Russia. The declaration came on the heels of a referendum a day earlier, when 96.8 percent of participants voted for reunion with Russia.
On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law documents that officially made the Black Sea peninsula part of the Russian territory despite condemnation from the West and the new Ukrainian government.
The move sparked angry reactions from the United States and the European Union, both imposing punitive measures against a number of Russian officials and authorities in Crimea.
GMA/HSN
Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/30/356534/crimea-switches-clocks-to-moscow-time/
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