Gorbachev: Crimea vote a 'happy event'

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has hailed Crimea’s vote to join Russia as a “happy event”.

Mr Gorbachev said in remarks carried by online newspaper Slon.ru today that the vote offered Crimean residents the freedom of choice and justly reflected their will.

He said Sunday’s referendum showed that “people really wanted to return to Russia” and was a “happy event”.

He added that the Crimean poll has set an example for people in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, who should also decide their fate.

Mr Gorbachev, 83, who resigned as the Soviet president on Christmas Day 1991, has voiced regret that he was unable to stem the Soviet Union’s collapse.

He has criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian policy, but said today that he supports his course in the Ukrainian crisis.

However, US Vice President Joe Biden has arrived in Poland on a trip designed to show America’s resolve against Russia’s intervention.

He landed in Warsaw, where he planned to have talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Bronislaw Komorowski. He will also meet Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

The meetings with the Nato allies are part of a broader US campaign to persuade President Putin to back off in Ukraine. The US is imposing the most comprehensive sanctions against Russian officials since the Cold War.

Later today, Mr Biden will fly to the Baltic nation of Lithuania to meet President Dalia Grybauskaite and Latvian President Andris Berzins.

Latvia and Estonia share borders with Russia, and Poland and Lithuania are nearby.