Russia appeared firm on Friday over Ukraine’s flashpoint peninsula of Crimea despite sanctions by the West. Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone call with his US counterpart Barack Obama.

Russia appeared firm on Friday over Ukraine's flashpoint peninsula of Crimea despite sanctions by the West. Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone call with his US counterpart Barack Obama.

The heads of Russia's two houses of parliament indicated Putin's resolve by announcing that Moscow intended to respect Crimean lawmakers' decision to renounce ties with Ukraine and stage a March 16 referendum on joining Russia.

"We will respect the historic choice of the people of Crimea," said lower house speaker Sergei Naryshkin.

"We support the free and democratic choice of the population of Crimea."
The upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko added that "should the people of Crimea decide to join Russia in a referendum, we... will unquestionably back this choice."

The crisis of Ukraine prompted Obama to place an hour-long call to Putin that both sides described as tough.

The White House said Obama "emphasized that Russia's actions are in violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which has led us to take several steps in response, in coordination with our European partners."

Obama also proposed a pullback of troops to pre-existing Russian bases, international monitors to protect the rights of all populations in Ukraine, and support for new Ukrainian elections in May, the White House said in a statement about the conversation with Putin.

However, he “indicated that there is a way to resolve the situation diplomatically, which addresses the interests of Russia, the people of Ukraine, and the international community," the White House added.

For its part, Putin rebuffed a warning from Obama over Moscow's involvement  in Crimea, saying on that Russia could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.

The Kranlin said in a statement that  Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, wherePutin said the new authorities had taken "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.

"Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law," Putin said.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that Putin tried to calm tensions by stressing that US-Russian relations "should not be sacrificed due to disagreements over individual -- albeit extremely significant -- international problems."