L.A. Times:
Russian lawmakers unanimously approved a request by President Vladimir Putin to send armed forces to Ukraine to protect ethnic Russians there and secure the Black Sea fleet and other military installations in Ukraine’s Crimea region.
In a 90-0 vote during an extraordinary session of the Federation Council, the upper house deputies argued that last week’s disruption of “constitutional order,” the deadly confrontation in Kiev that led then-President Viktor Yanukovich to flee to Russia, exposes Ukraine’s minority Russian-speaking community to unspecified dangers.
The Federation Council also recommended that the Kremlin recall the Russian ambassador to the United States to underscore objections to remarks made by President Obama on Friday. At a White House briefing, Obama warned Putin that he was “deeply concerned” by the reported Russian military maneuvers in Crimea, which are considered by the West to be in violation of Russia’s post-Soviet agreement with Ukraine for maintaining its naval base in the leased city of Sevastopol. Obama said there would be “consequences” for the Kremlin should it interfere in Ukraine’s political crisis.
And
according to The New York Times:
As Russian armed forces effectively seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula on Saturday, the Russian Parliament granted President Vladimir V. Putin the authority he sought to use military force in response to the deepening instability in Ukraine.
The U.N. Security Council, which met yesterday, is holding another meeting on the crisis today. There's ongoing discussion in
two diaries from Eternal Hope.