Putin Responds To US, European Sanctions: Signs Order Recognizing Crimea As Sovereign State | Zero Hedge

Putin Responds To US, European Sanctions: Signs Order Recognizing Crimea As Sovereign State | Zero Hedge.

So much for de-escalating:

• RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN SIGNS ORDER ON RECOGNITION OF CRIMEA AS SOVEREIGN STATE – RIA

Surely to precede Putin’s own executive order recognizing Crimea as the latest member of the Russian Federation. And as for those “crippling” sanctions, via the FT, here is the locals reall think and why the Russian stock market is soaring as we reported earlier.

Moscow investment banker on US sanctions: “It’s as innocuous as we’d hoped”

— Courtney Weaver (@courtneymoscow) March 17, 2014

One also wonders: how long until Russia freezes all assets of McDonalds restaurants operating in Russia.