DHAKA: Russia president Putin has told a special session of Russia’s parliament that ‘in people’s heart of hearts, Crimea has always been part of Russia’.

Putin was speaking at the Kremlin, where he announced new laws for Crimea to join the Russian Federation and asked MPs to back the move.

Crimean officials say 97% of voters backed splitting from Ukraine in a controversial referendum on Sunday.

The EU and US have declared the vote illegal and imposed sanctions.

Crimea was taken over by pro-Russian forces in late February after Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia following months of street protests.

Following Sunday’s referendum, the region’s new leaders declared independence and applied to Moscow to join Russia.

Putin has recognised Crimea as a sovereign state and approved a draft bill on the accession.

On Tuesday, in a televised address in front of both houses of parliament, and in the presence of Crimea’s new leaders, he said those behind Ukraine’s uprising were ‘extremists’ who had brought chaos to Ukraine.

Crimea, he said, ‘was and is an inseparable part of Russia’, and the results of the referendum were ‘more than convincing’, reports the BBC.

BDST: 1824 HRS, MAR 18, 2014