MASS RALLY IN CRIMEAN CAPITAL

Party of Regions intends to hold referendum on Russian status
SIMFEROPOL, March 18, 2006 (Itar-Tass) - The Party of Regions of Ukraine intends to hold a referendum after parliamentary elections to give Russian a status of state language in Crimea, the party’s leader Viktor Yanukovich said.

Speaking at a mass rally on Saturday, Yanukovich said, “I won’t give up an idea of the referendum on the language.” The meeting involved over 10,000 residents of Crimea. They held placards “Future of Ukraine in Union with Russia”, “No Yushchenko, No Timoshenko.”

The referendum is expected to take place on March 26 simultaneously with the parliamentary and regional elections.
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According to the Tavrichesky Kurier, Kiev deployed unprecedented efforts to wreck the refereendum on the Russian language on March 26. Local electoral commissions are banned to process the referendum bulletins. Leader of the illegal Crimean Tatar parliament the medjlis Mustafa Djemilev threatened that Crimean Tatars would discard referendum bulletins when receiving papers at polling stations.