Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, on Monday dismissed weekend referendums in the country’s restive, Russian-speaking eastern region as a farce with no legal basis, as the European Union prepared to announce a relatively modest tightening of sanctions against Moscow and its allies. The Kremlin said Russia “respects the will of the population” in two provinces in eastern Ukraine that participated on Sunday in chaotic ballots offering them a question about self-rule. But a statement from Moscow left open the possibility of dialogue and mediation to resolve the crisis. The ballots left the destiny of the east — Ukraine’s industrial heartland — unclear, as armed forces loyal to the interim government in Kiev and pro-Russian militants remained locked in a tense standoff that sometimes overflowed into gunfire. According to early results cited by The Associated Press, 89 percent of voters in the Donetsk region and 96 percent in neighboring […]