Russian tourists refuse from trips to USA and UK

The press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, Irina Tyurina, told reporters that the demand for summer educational programs abroad fell among Russian citizens as compared with the previous year due to the introduction of sanctions against Russia by the European Union. The falling demand is estimated between 20% and 50% vs. 2013. "The beginning of this week was marked with another extension of the "black list" of the European Union for Russia. The list now includes more than 60 people whose entry to the EU was denied. Officials with foreign diplomatic missions have repeatedly stated that common Russians, who are going to travel abroad, do not have to fear the sanctions, because all countries are interested in increasing the tourist flow from Russia, and no one wants to build any obstacles in issuing visas to Russian tourists. Yet, many Russians take the sanctions policy personally, and the segment of educational tourism has proved to be most vulnerable in this respect," stressed Tyurina. Tour operators say that many Russian parents decide to postpone sending their children abroad for language classes being concerned that they will be denied a visa. "Fortunately, there is no trend of massive claims for refunds for the previously purchased tours. However, the general demand for summer educational programs abroad noticeably subsided this year," said the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry. According to her, residents in Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk succumbed to panic more than others. In Moscow, people are still willing to travel abroad. The number of refusals for language programs for students up to 16 years in the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia is the largest. Nevertheless, according to Tyurina, the consulates of these countries issue visas to Russians without any difficulties. "Against such a background, language camps in Malta and Cyprus are doing better, which can be attributed to their relative cheapness compared, for example, to the UK," the press secretary said. Tyurina stressed out that "tour operators do not recall a similar situation with the demand for educational tours during the previous years. As a rule, any shocks in the economy for this type of tourism go more smoothly than, for example, in the sphere of beach or sightseeing holidays. "Studying abroad can be affordable to people with good incomes, and they are prone to crises to a lesser extent," concluded Tyurina. Meanwhile, hundreds of Russian citizens have lost their money because of failed trips to the UK due to visa registration problems. The managing company of UK visa centers in Russia was changed at the end of March. As a result, many tourists began to receive their passports back after the date of their previously scheduled departure. There were incidents, when delays in receiving passports made up 2.5-3 months. Such a situation has developed in all regions of Russia that have UK visa centers. The centers do not provide any confirmation for the date when applicants can collect their passports, and tourists can not prove that they received the documents after the previously set date. In this connection, insurance companies refuse to pay cancellation coverage, the Russian Union of Travel Industry said.

Russian tank 'Slingshot' vs. Israeli 'War Chariot'

Sometimes it seems that the creators of Russian military equipment were picking on a "potential enemy" deliberately, since the Soviet times. Just think about it - the name of an Israeli tank Merkava translates as "war chariot" and Russia's T-72B is known as "slingshot." What about the equipment for Russian special services? Handcuffs "Tenderness," shock baton "Caress-Super" baton "Argument," gas "Bird Cherry." Who comes up with all these names? Catalogues of Russian military equipment contain such items as digging tools "Vigor," stretcher "Inspiration," sabots "Mummy." Publications of the Russian defense industry mention a manual six-shot revolver "Gnome," naval torpedo "Raccoon," anti-tank mine "Tick," tactical free-falling bomb with a special warhead up to 40 kilotons "Natasha," silent automatic grenade launcher "Canary," aviation system of single indication "Narcissus," etc. Russian artillery systems do not bear threatening names, as they do in foreign countries. Russian names for such systems are more than just peaceful, they are flowery: "Carnation," "Acacia," "Tulip," "Hyacinth," "Peony," "Chrysanthemum" and so forth. The world's most powerful 30-barrel propelled flamethrower is called "Pinocchio." There are many other fascinating names: automatic mortar "Cornflower," company mortar "Tray," mortar "Sledge," system of active wired protection "Cactus," intercontinental ballistic missile "Good Boy," fire control system "Cabbage," artillery radar system "Zoo," container system for rocket control "Phantasmagoria," self-propelled gun "Capacitor." We can continue with coastal defense missile system "Ball," anti-tank missiles "Half-Breed," heavy tank support combat vehicle "Frame," grenades for grenade launcher "Foundling," grenade launcher "Shoes," radar artillery reconnaissance and fire control complex "Zoo." As it turns out, the fashion for specific names of arms, except for digital and abbreviated codes, began to be used around the world back in the 1950s and 1960s. The Americans were the first to invent intimidating names for their weapon systems. Apparently, the American trend forced Soviet military designers to invent ironic names to their creations. For example, formidable naval missile systems "Trident" or "Polaris" clearly inspired Russian engineers to name the world's most massive strategic nuclear submarine of Project 667A "Navaga." Navaga is small edible fish that tastes best when fried. Afterwards, the confused "probable and potential" enemy, apparently not to confuse their commanders and spies introduced the so-called "NATO classification" for Soviet submarines. "Navaga," for some reason, was called "Yankee." Today, even in Russian naval reference books, domestic nuclear submarines have NATO names. For example, our project 667BDRM submarine is called "Dolphin" or "Delta-4." Project 661 "Upas Tree" (aka "Goldfish") is simply "Papa" under NATO classification. The world's largest heavy strategic missile submarines of Project 941 "Akula" under NATO classification go as SSBN "Typhoon." Submarine of Project 971 "Pike-B" under NATO are known as "Akula." Project 949A "Antey" submarines under NATO classification are known as "Oscar-II." NATO renamed all Russian weapons to their own liking, the basic principle of which is impossible to understand. Apparently, the principle was as follows: "We can't understand your names, so you won't understand ours." Naval historian, writer and journalist Sergei Aprelev said: "Alas, history has not left the names of those outstanding and undoubtedly talented people, who had a keen sense of humor. It may well be that some of our weapons were named randomly, not even from the top. Here is a story. A Russian submarine recorded the noises of so-called "Quakers." The commander was instructed to describe those signals, so to speak, in his own words. The description eventually said: "They sound like steel balls jumping on an iron plate with a decreasing amplitude." It appears that the description was included in secret reports from a special group of scientists, who were studying the phenomenon ..."

Why doesn't Russia respond to Western sanctions?

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would not impose sanctions against the United States and the European Union. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry promised to take stepы in response to the sanctions that would painfully echo in Washington. Nevertheless, no such step has been taken yet. Why? Commenting on yet another portion of sanctions from the U.S. and the EU, Vladimir Putin said there was no need for Russia to respond with sanctions in return. At the end of April, when Washington and Brussels announced another round of sanctions to be introduced against several Russian citizens and companies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow would not leave the move without a response: "We have never concealed the fact that there are possibilities for such a response, and the set of measures that could be taken is large enough." He stressed out that "the response would painfully echo in Washington." However, Russia does not seem to be in a hurry to hurt Washington. "Why do we need to respond stupidly to stupidity?" the head of the Department for Applied Political Science at the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Simonov said. According to him, "Russia can respond indeed - Western companies work in Russia actively." "In fact, the dependence on Russia is quite strong, many are not even aware of this dependence. This includes the consumption of Russian products and investment in Russia," the expert said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. "The list of things, with which we can cause damage to Western companies is a very extensive one. The question is, why do we have to do it? If we introduce restrictions on the presence of foreign companies in Russia, then it will affect us as well. The Europeans, when they impose sanctions, must be aware of the fact that it will affect their own consumers. It is impossible to do anything else in the situation when Russian and European economies are so intertwined. Many in Europe are against these sanctions, because they are only possible at the expense of self-restraint," said Konstantin Simonov. Our position on Ukraine and the Crimea is clear and unambiguous. We do not believe that we violated international law and that we should be subject to sanctions. We will prove our rightness in a different way," the head of the Department for General Politics of the Higher School of Economics, Leonid Polyakov said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. "I think that we should not get involved in this game. It seems to me that those, who threaten us with sanctions and use them, will eventually come to their senses and realize that this is a pointless and counterproductive endeavour. I think this is what our position is based on, and it will ultimately give positive results," says the analyst.

Putin: Russia does not want to go back to language of Kalashnikov rifle

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia does not plan to impose restrictions on the use of the Internet. The restrictions, he added, may touch only the propaganda of suicide and pedophilia. "We do not have any limitations associated with the self-expression of a human being, related to the use of modern technologies for one's own development, or for development of one's own business," Putin said at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. "The restrictions have been introduced, but what are they about? They are about the prohibition of the propaganda of pedophilia, child pornography, and the propaganda of methods of suicide. Excuse me, but legal systems of other countries are full of such restrictions, and this applies to Europe and the United States," said Putin. Moreover, he said, such restrictions in those countries are much more stringent than in the Russian legislation. Equating some bloggers to mass media complies with global trends in this area, and Russia simply closes loopholes in the law in this case, Putin said. "This practice is used in European countries, in the UK and in Germany, the United States, and there is nothing unusual at this point. This is just a gap in our legislation that we are closing, and the application of these rules does not come contrary to world trends. Here, all is within the common trends," Putin said, answering questions at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Russia has no plans to impose restrictions on the use of social networks, nor does it intend to criticize those who do it, Putin said. "First, we are not going to close anything. Secondly, we do not believe we have the right to criticize those who do it. In each case, there is a unique national aspect, and it is not up to us to judge what others do and how," the Russian president said, answering the question whether Russia could indeed ban Facebook, Twitter and their Russian analogues. "We plan to develop modern means of communication. And I hope that we will never return to the time when the primary means of communication was a Kalashnikov rifle," said the president of the Russian Federation. During the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Putin made it clear to all present that Russia was tired of the debate with NATO about the deployment of the missile defense system of the alliance in dangerous proximity to Russian strategic objects. "We are tired of this form of debate - there's no discussion," Putin said. The head of state pointed out that those, who committed a coup in Ukraine, do not want to talk to Russia. "Here are our thoughts. The next step is Ukraine in NATO. They never ask us about it, nor do they conduct a dialogue with us. As experience of the past two decades shows - there's no dialogue, they only say - "none of your business, it doesn't concern you," Putin said. According to him, the West can only assure Russia that the approach of NATO infrastructure to the Russian borders was not directed against Russia. "Tomorrow, Ukraine may join NATO, and in the next few days, elements of U.S. missile defense system may appear in Ukraine. No one ever talks to us on this subject," concluded the president. Vladimir Putin said that he had no idea about how the fate of Edward Snowden may evolve. He assured that the ex-CIA officer had not told anything to Russian security services. "I do not even know. He is a young guy, I don't know how he is going to live. I'm saying this without any jokes or irony. For the time being, he is here, but then what?" Putin said, answering questions at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. "We only gave him shelter and that's all. He is not our agent, he has not exposed any secrets to us. Bad guy, he could have shared something. We still gave him shelter, but he says nothing. He reveals his information through the channels that he knows, when he deems it necessary to publish something," said Putin. Putin added that if U.S. intelligence agencies had acted professionally, Edward Snowden would have been in prison a long time ago. "Why did they frighten the whole world? They frightened all countries. Snowden arrived at our transit zone, and then it turned out that nobody wanted to take him. If they hadn't scared anyone, he would have flown somewhere, and they would have caught him on the way to another country. He'd be steaming in prison for a long time," said Putin. Putin continued: "They frightened everyone, he stayed with us in the transit area, and what do we do? Russia is not the country that delivers human rights defenders." According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, what happened in the Ukraine was a coup that led to chaos and civil war. "Whatever you call it - a revolution, not a revolution - this is a coup, with the use of force and militants," Putin said. According to the president, one should be as accurate as possible when it comes to the institutions of emerging countries. "Otherwise, there will be chaos. And we can see it now in Ukraine," he said. "Why was it necessary to do all that, if Yanukovych agreed to everything?" Putin said. "One should have gone to the polls, and the people, whom they have in power now, would come to power, only legally. We, like idiots, would be paying 15 billion that we promised, keep low gas prices and continue to subsidize the economy of Ukraine further on," said the president. Putin said that Moscow was ready to work with the government formed after the presidential election in Ukraine. "We are still working with the people, who control the power today, but after the election, we will certainly work with the newly elected bodies," said the head of state, speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Putin said Moscow would like to see peace in Ukraine. "We are interested in seeing peace, order and tranquility in our - I mean no irony here - brotherly country of Ukraine," said the president. Putin also said that Russia would respect the results of the presidential election in Ukraine. "We understand and see that the people in Ukraine want the country to come out of this protracted crisis. We also want, in the end, solace, and we will respect the choice of the Ukrainian people," said Putin.

Poroshenko Claims Ukraine Presidency

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian confectionery tycoon Petro Poroshenko has claimed outright victory in the country's presidential election. Mr Poroshenko, known as the "chocolate king", won more than 55% of the vote in the first round, exit polls suggest. His closest challenger, former Ukrainian prime minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna party Yulia Tymoshenko, conceded the election after exit polls showed her with 13% of the vote. Announcing he had won, the 48-year-old businessman promised to forge closer links with the EU and restore peace in restive eastern regions. Pro-Russian separatists severely disrupted voting there. Some 20 people have died in fighting in recent days. No polling stations were open in Donetsk city, and across the region only seven out of 12 district electoral commissions were operating. The Russian separatists are in control of large areas of the Donestk and Luhansk regions. Four hours before polls closed, at 16:00 (13:00 GMT), unofficial estimates put the turnout nationwide at 45%. Addressing supporters in Kiev, Mr Poroshenko said he would support a parliamentary election later this year. He also said he would never recognise Russia's "occupation of Crimea", annexed by Moscow in March. Asked about relations with Russia, he said the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Ukraine mattered most to him.

Ukrainians Vote In Key Presidential Election Despite Eastern Unrest

DONETSK, Ukraine -- Voters went to the polls across much of Ukraine on Sunday, despite a recent wave of deadly violence in the East and threats by pro-Russia separatists to prevent citizens from casting their ballots. The unrest has centered in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where separatists have claimed independence following a disputed referendum earlier this month -- and many there will not get to cast ballots. As of 3 p.m. (8 a.m. ET), some 528 polling sites out of 2,430 were open in the Donetsk region, the regional administration said. Local officials said there was 11.8% turnout at these polling stations. Outside the county's restive East, voting was progressing more normally. The Central Election Commission put voter turnout at nearly 38% as of 3 p.m. local time, not including the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine's official Ukrinform news agency reported. In the city of Donetsk, the regional capital where pro-Russia militias are concentrated, there are no open polling stations, local officials said earlier. A CNN team driving through the city Sunday morning was not able to see a single polling station in operation. However, there were signs some voters were trying to go to polling stations in areas west and south of the city. A large Russian separatist rally was held in a central Donetsk city square around lunchtime. The protesters, who chanted pro-Russia slogans as they were addressed by separatist leaders, were joined by a substantial number of militants on trucks, some firing guns into the air. On the back of some of the trucks were armed men who appeared to be Chechen. Two told a CNN team they were from the Chechen capital, Grozny, and one indicated that he was formerly a policemen in Chechnya and was in Donetsk to serve the Russian Federation. The men, who as Chechens are Russian citizens, said they were there as "volunteers." But if their accounts were true, their presence in Donetsk would appear to indicate some kind of acquiescence by the Russian government at the least. Increasing violence in the East has led the authorities in Kiev to accuse Russia, which they say is backing the armed separatists, of seeking to disrupt the vote. Russia denies having direct influence over the militants, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will respect the Ukrainians' choice. Amid heightened tensions, instances of intimidation in eastern Ukraine appear widespread. Residents of Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol saw new billboards on the streets Sunday urging them not to cast their ballots. The billboards were not at those locations the night before, residents said. Also in Mariupol, people talked on social media about being asked by local Russia supporters to boycott the election. The city is one of several where deadly clashes have erupted in recent weeks. The self-declared mayor of rebel stronghold Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, has said that anyone who tries to vote there will be arrested. An Italian journalist was killed Saturday near the flashpoint town, the Italian Foreign Ministry announced Sunday. The man, named as Andrea Rocchelli, was killed along with a Russian citizen, the ministry said. Reports suggested there had been mortar fire in the Slavyansk area. Candy tycoon favored to win Voters are choosing a successor to ousted pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych in a country torn apart by Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and bloody conflict with pro-Russia factions. The man considered the front-runner for the job is candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko, known as the "Chocolate King." A billionaire businessman, he is also a seasoned politician. Opinion polls indicate his closest rival in a field of around 20 is Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna party. It's possible Poroshenko will win outright in the first round by getting more than 50% of the vote. If he fails to cross that hurdle, he'll face the runner-up in a runoff election. Besides the presidential race, candidates are also running in municipal elections in some cities. Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said he would cast his ballot in the capital, Kiev, on Sunday morning. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has deployed 900 observers for the election -- the largest such mission in its history. Amid the escalating tensions, claim and counterclaim have swirled. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's spokeswoman, Natalia Stativko, told CNN that a claim on Avakov's website -- that the Electoral Commission's electronic vote counting system had been destroyed -- was fake. She said the website had been hacked. The Prosecutor General's Office said Saturday it was investigating 83 cases of alleged interference in the election process in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. On Sunday, an adviser to the official Donetsk governor, Sergey Taruta, said a group of 40 armed men encircled and entered the Hotel Victoria, where the governor's office is temporary located. The men were dressed alike and had automatic weapons, said the adviser, Vasyl Azbuzov. They were looking for the governor, who was voting in Mariupol at that time, but left after taking a list of the hotel's guests. Yatsenyuk: You can't intimidate us Whoever wins the presidency will face the challenge of reuniting a country that is deeply divided and in dire economic straits. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Saturday urged all Ukrainians to go to the polls, saying they would "prove to the whole world, and first of all to ourselves, that it is not possible to intimidate us, that we are going to decide ourselves how to rebuild our home and how to work in it." Voters will be choosing a president to lead a country "for whose freedom, prosperity, European future, the Ukrainians are paying the highest price -- the price of their own lives," he said. Despite the troubles in eastern Ukraine, he said, the vote would represent the "free and unobstructed choice" of the whole nation. "And I would like to assure those our compatriots in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who will be prevented from coming to the polling stations by the war waged against Ukraine: The criminals don't have much time left to terrorize your land," he added. According to protesters speaking Saturday outside the headquarters of the self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic," as well as the body's Twitter account, Donetsk and Luhansk have united to form a new separatist republic called "Novorossiya." The government in Kiev, which launched an "anti-terrorist operation" against the separatists, has so far been unable to dislodge them from the towns and cities they hold. Putin on Friday told an economic forum in St. Petersburg that he would respect the will of Ukraine's voters in Sunday's election. But he reiterated Russia's assertion that according to Ukraine's Constitution, Yanukovych -- who was ousted in February following months of street protests -- remains the nation's legitimate president. Putin also questioned whether the election should be held now, given the violence in eastern Ukraine. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksey Meshkov said Friday that Russia would decide whether or not to recognize the Ukraine vote only after it takes place, according to state media. U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said that disruption of the Ukraine vote by Russia would bring further sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy.

Ukraine Voters Seek Leader To Save Nation

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainians voted on Sunday for a leader they hope will save their country from bankruptcy, dismemberment and civil war, but eastern cities were turned into ghost towns where armed separatist fighters kept polling stations shut. The election marks the culmination of a revolution that began in February when a pro-Russian president fled the country and spiraled into an existential crisis when Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by declaring Moscow's right to invade. The main candidates, including frontrunner Petro Poroshenko, a confectionery magnate, are promising closer ties with the West in defiance of Putin. "These are extremely important elections. We have to make sure Ukraine becomes a truly independent country, a powerful independent state that nobody will be able to push around," said pensioner Mihailo Belyk, 65, casting his ballot at a crowded polling station in a southeastern district of the capital Kiev. But in the Russian-speaking eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, where pro-Moscow fighters have proclaimed independent "people's republics", men with guns succeeded in blocking a vote that would imply their regions are still part of Ukraine. Nor was any vote held in Crimea, which Russia annexed in March. Ukrainian authorities said only about 20 percent of polling stations in the two restive eastern regions were working. Just 16 percent of the 3.3 million people in Donetsk region would have access to a place to vote. No polls were open in the regional capital, a city of a million, where streets were largely empty with people afraid to venture outdoors. Putin, who branded eastern Ukraine "New Russia" last month, has made more accommodating noises of late, saying on Saturday he would respect the Ukrainian people's will. He has announced the pullback of tens of thousands of troops massed on the frontier. But the absence of more than 15 percent of the electorate - both in the eastern regions and in Crimea - could give Moscow an excuse to raise doubts about the victor's legitimacy and continue applying pressure on Kiev. In Donetsk, scores of armed separatists gathered outside the sprawling and guarded residence of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and owner of mines and factories across the Donbass coalfield, who has thrown his weight behind a united country. "We must guarantee the rights and security of people who live in the Donbass, who today are truly suffering from terrorists who want to turn the Donbass into Somalia," frontrunner Poroshenko said after voting in the capital. European election monitors have largely pulled out of the Donetsk region for their own safety, citing a campaign of "terror" by the pro-Russian separatists against Ukrainian electoral officials. Italy said an Italian journalist was killed on Saturday along with a Russian national near Slaviansk, the most heavily fortified rebel redoubt in the east, where the separatists have increasingly clashed with Ukrainian troops. TURNING POINT Ukrainians hope the election of a permanent new president can finally open up a path out of a crisis that has put the very future of their country in jeopardy. Not only is territory slipping out of its control, but the country is nearly bankrupt, its economy looted by decades of leadership rated among the most corrupt in the world. It still depends on Moscow for natural gas. Since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich fled in February after more than 100 people were killed in demonstrations, Moscow has refused to recognize the interim leaders in Kiev, describing them as a fascist junta who threaten the safety of millions of Russian speakers. Ukrainians hope that Moscow would not so quickly dismiss an elected leader with a solid mandate. The United States and European Union also view the election as a decisive event in ending their worst confrontation with Moscow since the Cold War. Their response to Russian interference in Ukraine so far has been limited to freezing the assets of a few dozen Russian individuals and small firms. But they have threatened to take far more serious measures, even targeting whole sectors of Russian industry, if Moscow interferes with the vote. "VIOLATION OF MY RIGHTS" At a school in a Donetsk suburb, pensioner Grigory Nikitayich, 72, was unhappy about being denied the right to vote for Poroshenko. "I don't even know where I can vote. No one has said anything. What kind of polls are these? Things are bad." Even Ukrainian soldiers sent to assert the government's authority in the east said they had no place to vote. "Our superiors promised we would be able to vote here but it turns out that is not so. This is a violation of my rights, it's ridiculous - I am here to safeguard an election in which I cannot vote," said Ivan Satsuk, a soldier from the Kiev region sent to man a roadblock near the eastern port of Mariupol. Voting ends at 8 p.m. (1300 ET), when exit polls will indicate a result ahead of an official outcome on Monday. Polls make Poroshenko, known as the "chocolate king" because of his confectionery empire, the runaway favorite among the 21 candidates, though it is not clear whether he can win the 50 percent needed to avert a runoff vote on June 15. Poroshenko served in the cabinet both under Yanukovich and under a previous government led by Yanukovich's foes, giving him a reputation as a pragmatist capable of bridging Ukraine's divide between supporters and opponents of Moscow. He nevertheless was a strong backer of the street protests that toppled Yanukovich, acceptable to many in the "Maidan" movement of pro-European protesters who have kept their tented camp in the capital to keep pressure on the new leaders. He has urged voters to give him a quick victory, warning that new unrest might derail a second round. His closest, if distant, rival is Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister jailed under Yanukovich and released the day he fled. She remains a divisive figure to many, more closely linked than Poroshenko with the economic failures and graft that have blighted post-Soviet Ukraine. "It is time to hold a referendum on joining NATO to restore peace in Ukraine," said Tymoshenko after voting in her native city of Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine. Russia is fiercely opposed to Ukraine joining the Western military alliance. Poroshenko has said he would not join NATO. Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said a new president would move Ukraine away from a "grey zone of lawlessness and dark forces ... into a place where it is easier to breathe". "Efforts by the Russian Federation and the terrorists it finances to derail the elections are doomed to failure. We will have a legitimate head of state," Yatseniuk said on Sunday. Moscow denies financing or training the separatists, denials that Western countries dismiss as absurd. Putin pledged on Saturday to "respect" the people's choice and work with Ukraine's new administration - a conciliatory move during an economic forum at which he had acknowledged that U.S. and EU sanctions over Ukraine were hurting the Russian economy. He played down talk of a return to Cold War with the West and dismissed the idea he was bent on restoring the former USSR, whose collapse he has in the past lamented. Washington and its EU allies are concerned that while Russia may accept the election result, it may use influence in eastern Ukraine to undermine the new president's authority and keep the country beholden to Moscow. Russian officials have questioned the value of holding the vote when the east is in "civil war".