Crimea, a region that the Kremlin transferred from Russia

long dresses for women cheap corsets for sale Crimea, a region that the Kremlin transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, is home mostly to ethnic Russians. Since Russia's incursion into the Crimean
peninsula in late February, pro-Ukrainian media have been largely silenced. Billboards agitating for secession—some comparing the new powers in Ukraine to
Nazi Germany—line highways and city streets. The new de facto mayor of Sevastopol, which is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet, said in a video address
Saturday that residents faced a choice between becoming honorable descendants of World War II martyrs or joining "a herd of sheep that need euro-shepherds to
take us to a promised feed-box."

Sure enough, inside the dozens of transparent ballot boxes viewed by Wall Street Journal reporters across Crimea, not a single vote against joining Russia
could be seen.
The festive air of the vote—and the lack of suspense over the outcome—recalled Soviet times. To some, who lament Crimea's economic travails since the
Soviet Union's collapse, that felt like a good thing. In Sevastopol, a privileged place to live in the Soviet days, oldies of the era such as "Moscow Nights"
played over speakers at a polling station.
"People are coming here as if for a celebration," precinct deputy chairwoman Elena Kondratyukh said in Gvardeyskoye. "It's like how our parents took us to
vote."
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 A woman cast her ballot during the referendum at a polling station in Simferopol. The referendum, which has been dismissed as illegal by the West, follows
the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych by pro-Western and nationalist protesters. Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters