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Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on law, brotherhood, and the romance of reunification in a speech to a joint session of Russia's parliamentary houses today, before joining Crimean leaders in a treaty signing ceremony to make the peninsula a new addition to Russia.

Last night, the Kremlin website posted an approval of Crimea's draft independence bill, recognizing Crimea as a sovereign state. Today, Putin spoke for close to an hour about the history of Russia, Crimea, and the West, before overseeing the signing of document, citing the will of the Crimean people as justification and decrying the West's attempt to stop the union.

In the speech, Putin made the expected point that there's not that much the international community can do to prevent two willing, sovereign entities to merge. He made the case that Russia has acted in accordance with international law, and that thousands of Russian troops on the ground in Crimea had nothing to do with it. Per the Associated Press:

To back his claim that Crimea's vote was in line with international law, Putin pointed to Kosovo's independence bid from Serbia — supported by the West and opposed by Russia — and said that Crimea's secession from Ukraine repeats Ukraine's own secession from the Soviet Union in 1991. He denied Western accusations that Russia invaded Crimea prior to the referendum, saying Russian troops were sent there in line with a treaty with Ukraine that allows Russia to have up to 25,000 troops at its Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea. He said that protests that drove out Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych were encouraged by the West.

Basically, according to Putin, there's absolutely no reason why anyone in the international or Ukrainian community should have the slightest issue with him or Russia. But ethnic Russians in Crimea, have plenty of good reasons to be mad at Kiev.