US news agency Associated Press is no longer marking news items coming from Crimea as Ukrainian. In a blog statement, the American news major explained that the Ukrainian regime had lost control over the peninsula, and stressed its marking practice was based on the actual state of things.
Where it once used this dateline: "SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (AP)," it will now use this one: "SEVASTOPOL, Crimea (AP)."
The reason is that Crimea is geographically distinct from Russia; they have no land border.
"For instance, we just say "Sicily" and "Sardinia" in datelines - "Palermo, Sicily" - even though they are part of Italy, and "Guadeloupe" in datelines even though that island is part of France," Associated Press' Stylebook announced
The change will effectively recognize Crimea as an independent state following a referendum on Sunday where the vast majority of Crimeans voted to become independent and join Russia
US map-makers to show Crimea as part of Russia
Experts of the US National Geographic Society say they will indicate Crimea as a part of Russia. The chief geographer at the Society, Juan Valdes, said that once the Russian Parliament ratifies the treaty on accepting Crimea into the Russian Federation, the Crimean Republic will officially become Russian territory, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
According to Valdes, he is bound to monitor the situation the world over to guarantee that maps show the actual state of things.
"We map de facto, in other words we map the world as it is, not as people would like it to be," Juan Jose Valdes, the National Geographic's geographer and director of editorial and research for National Geographic Maps, said.
"As you can only surmise, sometimes our maps are not received in a positive light by some individuals who want to see the world in a different light," Valdes added.
The magazine's editorial, legal and cartographic leadership met on Tuesday morning to discuss how to map Crimea's political status. The stakeholders drafted a new policy document after deciding to temporarily indicate Crimea on maps as Ukrainian territory with a shading to indicate a special status – similar to how the Gaza Strip and West Bank are shown.
National Geographic will show the region as part of Russia after the Duma officially votes for reunification. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on Tuesday to bring Crimea into Russia, and the Russian parliament is expected to ratify the move later this week.
A treaty was signed in the Moscow Kremlin on March 18th on the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol joining the Russian Federation. The treaty was signed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of the State Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov, and the Head of Sevastopol Alexei Chaly.
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