Crimea’s parliament formally applied to join the Russian Federation on Monday morning and declared its independence from Ukraine.<br /><br />It follows Sunday’s controversial referendum vote in favour of leaving Ukraine. <br /><br />The parliament also announced that Ukrainian laws no longer applied and that state property belongs to Crimea.<br /><br />The region will also take on the Russian currency, the rouble, and will change the clocks to Moscow time (two hours ahead) by the end of March.<br /><br />The head of parliament said Ukrainian military units would be disbanded although personnel would be allowed to stay on the peninsula, <br /><br />Crimea’s referendum, which was declared illegal by the US and EU, showed 96.77 percent of voters in Crimea were in favour of joining Russia.<br /><br />Around 83 percent of the population voted. Crimea’s Tartar population and many ethnic Ukrainians had said they would boycot the vote. <br /><br />Russian President Putin will speak about Crimea at a joint session of parliament on Tuesday morning.