Ukraine Crisis: Crimea Changes Currency and Seizes Kiev's Properties ahead of Russia Annex

Crimean authorities were moving quickly to sever all ties with Kiev and realign every aspect of life on the Black Sea peninsula to Moscow standards after an overwhelming referendum result in favour of secession from ukraine.

The Crimean parliament announced that the Russian rouble would be adopted as official currency and circulate alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia until the latter is withdrawn in 2016.

The region's deputy prime minister, Rustam Temirgaliyev, told Interfax news agency that a new central bank was being set up and Russia would send 1bn roubles (£17m) "in the coming days" to help stabilise Crimea's finances.

Local lawmakers also voted to move clocks two hours forward to Moscow time.

In another development parliament declared that all Ukrainian state property on the peninsula would be nationalised and become assets of the Crimean Republic.

The republic itself would then become part of the Russian Federation.

Crimeans, a majority of whom are ethnic Russian, voted massively to secede from Kiev's rule and join Russia in a referendum described as illegal by Ukraine, the US and the EU.

Voters went to the polls a few weeks after thousands of pro-Russian troops took over strategic locations across the peninsula in the wake of the revolution that toppled Ukraine's Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovich.

Barack Obama told Vladimir Putin that the Crimean vote occurred "under duress of Russian military intervention" and would not be recognised.

The British foreign secretary William Hague denounced the referendum as a "mockery of proper democratic practice" and said that Russia had to face "economic and political consequences".

As the referendum's results were made public, a number of Crimean lawmakers said they were flying to Moscow to discuss annexation by Russia.

Putin was expected to address both houses of parliament in Moscow over the issue while the EU was moving to impose sanctions on Moscow.