Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that Moscow’s decision to annex the Crimean region may not be reviewed and must be respected.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that Moscow’s decision to annex the Crimean region may not be reviewed and must be respected.

In a phone call with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, Lavrov “stressed that the decision on Crimea's reunification with Russia reflected the expression of will of the absolute majority of its people, that it may not be reviewed and must be respected,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

“The minister noted the unacceptability of provocations aimed at destabilizing the situation in Crimea,” the statement added.
It also said that Lavrov and Kerry will continue discussions on ways to end the violence in Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, overwhelmingly approved a treaty to annex Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea into the Russian Federation.

Crimea reunification treaty is set to be considered by the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, on Friday.

This came two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the treaty with Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov and other Crimean leaders.

Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17 and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum a day earlier, in which 96.8 percent of Crimean residents voted in favor of the secession. The voter turnout in the referendum stood at 83.1 percent.

The move sparked angry reactions from the United States and the European Union, both imposing punitive measures against a number of Russian officials and authorities in Crimea.