Really? That may be true, or it may not be.... I'm not sure that it is a settled matter at this point....
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27344412
"No international observers were present and there were many irregularities: not enough polling stations, no up-to-date voter lists and no proper checks on identity."
"The referendum took place in the cities and towns controlled by separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. As the separatists control only some towns and cities, it is not yet clear how much of the territory of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic the referendum actually covered.
The Donetsk republic's election chief, Roman Lyakhin, said the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had blocked access to up-to-date voter registers, so voter rolls from the 2012 parliamentary election were being used.
About three million ballot papers were said to have been printed, with the combined population of the two regions standing at about 6.7 million. Ukrainian TV showed ballot papers being printed on a regular printer and bearing no protection marks."
BBC has footage of at least one woman putting in two pieces of paper...
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Again... I'm not saying that it's not true, I'm just saying there was a whole lot of room for problems with this referendom.
Meanwhile, apparaently Kiev wants to hold that same referendom at the same time as the general elections, so I guess we will see....
