Moving swiftly in the face of international condemnation, President Vladimir V. Putin on Tuesday notified Russia’s Parliament of his intention to make Crimea a part of the Russian Federation, defying the United States and Europe just hours after they imposed their first financial sanctions against Moscow since the crisis in Ukraine began. The Kremlin announced Mr. Putin’s decision only hours after he formally recognized Crimea as a “sovereign and independent state” late Monday night, after a vote to secede from Ukraine that was hastily organized and conducted under the watch of thousands of Russian special operations troops. Mr. Putin is scheduled to address both houses of Parliament on Tuesday afternoon and, according to reports, could outline his vision for annexing a region that has been under the authority of Kiev since 1954 and part of an independent Ukraine since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Mr. Putin’s […]