THE OCCUPATION OF CRIMEA: CHRONICLE OF SEIZURE PART 1 Pictured: The building of the Council of Ministers of ARC occupied by ‘little green men’ A session of the Crimean parliament held in the presence of these armed people dismissed the Crimean government headed by Anatoly Mogilev. In violation of Ukrainian law, the leader of the Crimean pro-Russian party ‘Russian Unity’ Sergey Aksyonov was appointed the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers. According to the Ministry of Internal AT airs of Ukraine, Aksyonov was a member of the Crime- an organized criminal group called ‘Salem’ in the 1990s. On the same day, the deputies of the Crimean parliament adopted a resolution call- ing for a region-wide referendum on the status of Crimea on May 25, 2014. This decision was made in violation of Ukrainian law which does not allow local referen- dums on changes to the territorial integrity of the state. The Prosecutor’s O7 ce of ARC opened criminal proceedings under Article 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (‘Terrorist Act’) in connection with the seizure of the buildings of the Council of Ministers and the parliament of the ARC. 2 The o7 cial website of the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the military units of the Western and Central Military Districts of the Russian Federation started a large-scale relocation to designated areas. The designated areas were not identi- R ed in the announcement, though the announcement noted: ‘General StaT o7 cers 2 http://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=11905614%40egNews 9