This is going to be a short diary because, sadly, there's not all that much to say.
Various news sources are reporting that the Crimean referendum is not actually going to have much choice to it. Basically, the voters will be asked to either join Russia immediately or to declare independence/autonomy and negotiate annexation by Russia. Sort of reminds me of a Monty Python skit.
I initially found it on the website of the Kyiv Post while I was browsing for English-language news websites, but I'm unfamiliar with the source and so, while it may be a perfectly good source, I wasn't comfortable vouching for their reliability or lack thereof, so I didn't diary it (I'm still linking the English-language article because it has the actual text of the referendum, which is of course written in Cyrillic characters, but I know that we do have some Russian speakers here as well as some folks with a Ukrainian background - have at it!). However, the Canadian Globe and Mail has similar reporting, so I'm confident enough in my information to write a diary.
So be careful when Russian mouthpieces begin pronouncing from upon high that this was the choice of the people. If you ask a person to pick between "spam" and "more spam" for lunch, it's disingenuous to extoll the popularity of spam when you eventually find someone willing to accept one of those false choices.
Do the Crimean people really want to be part of Russia? I don't know. At one time I thought maybe so, until the reporting began about how Russia trucked in some of those "demonstrators." But this referendum won't answer that question, not as currently constructed and not when conducted under the watchful eyes of the Russian Navy and spetsnaz.