Crimea's proposed referendum not legitimate: US

The US today said the upcoming referendum in Crimea, a province of Ukraine, for becoming a part of Russia is not legitimate.
"It will not be viewed by the United States as legitimate because it is inconsistent with the Ukrainian constitution, which makes clear that any change in Ukraine's borders has to be decided by all of Ukraine," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
With Obama reaching out to a host of world leaders including Japan, China, Britain, France, Germany and other nations, Carney said other countries have made clear that they would view it as illegitimate as well.

"So Russia needs to avail itself of the opportunity here to work with international partners and the government of Ukraine to resolve this issue diplomatically and peacefully," he said.
Carney said the conversations Obama has been having with leaders across the world about the situation in Ukraine and Crimea have focused not just on the referendum, which the US does not view as legitimate under the Ukrainian constitution, but on a broader effort to be united in calling for de-escalation and for a peaceful resolution to this crisis.
"We have been working with our partners to make clear to the Russians that there is an avenue available to them that would allow for an international effort to monitor and ensure that the rights of all Ukrainians are protected, including ethnic Russians, and that therefore any reasoning that their military intervention was necessary to protect the rights of ethnic Russians becomes defunct, even if it were ever valid, which it wasn't," he added.

"So those troops should go back to their bases. Russia ought to engage with the Ukrainian government in dialogue with international participation. And they should agree to a process whereby international monitors can go to Ukraine and all parts of Ukraine, including Crimea, to monitor the situation there so that the rights of every Ukrainian are protected," Carney said.

Obama today spoke with the Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"To every leader the president has spoken to about this matter agrees that we need to take steps together, working with the Russians and the Ukrainians, to resolve this diplomatically in a way that protects those principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

"China obviously plays a very important role in the Security Council and does have an important relationship with Russia, but the principles here are inviolable and they are starkly clear. There's no murky aspect to this," he said.