KIEV, Dec. 17 ??“ The Communist Party, a vehemently pro-Russian group, on Sunday staged a well-financed anti-NATO campaign in Crimea, Ukraine??™s autonomous republic, aimed at slowing down President??™s Viktor Yushchenko??™s pro-Western foreign policy.

The campaign, which the party calls ???the people??™s referendum,??? is the second major anti-NATO event in Crimea over the past six months. It may further fuel concerns within Ukraine over possible Russia??™s involvement in a Ukrainian region dominated by ethnic Russians.

???The Crimeans defeated Yushchenko at the referendum,??? Leonid Hrach, the leader of the Communist Party??™s Crimean branch, said. ???The people were defending themselves against Yushchenko??™s corrupt, pro-American power.???

The Communist Party erected tents and called them ???polling stations??? throughout the Crimean peninsula asking the people to cast ballots on whether the Crimeans approve Yushchenko??™s policy to join NATO.

Party officials said later more than 885,000 voters had cast their ballots, or 58.21% of those eligible to vote. Party officials said 98.7% voted against joining NATO, while 1.08% approved Yushchenko??™s policy.

Yaroslav Davydovych, the chairman of Ukraine??™s Central Electoral Commission, denounced the anti-NATO campaign as a PR-exercise that doesn??™t agree either with the law on referendum or with any other law,??? according to Interfax-Ukraine.

The latest anti-NATO action in Crimea comes two weeks after the pro-Russian government coalition in Kiev has tried to dismiss Ukraine??™s Foreign Minister Boris Tarasiuk, a key backer of the pro-Western foreign policy. The Communist Party is a member of the three-party coalition.

Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the speaker of Crimean Parliament, assured Davydovych that neither the Crimean government nor local authorities had financed the anti-NATO campaign.

But the scale of the campaign may raise questions on who has actually sponsored the campaign.

The SBU, Ukraine??™s security service, has been closely monitoring developments in Crimea since well-coordinated anti-NATO protests six months ago have prevented a scheduled NATO military exercise in Crimea.

Ihor Drizhchaniy, the head of the SBU, said in June that the SBU had traced links between organizers of the anti-NATO protests and undisclosed Russian officials.

Yushchenko wants Ukraine to join NATO in 2008, but Russia, which views the alliance as the military threat, has been desperately trying to stop Ukraine??™s accession.

Russia warned Ukraine as all economic ties with Ukraine would be severed after Kiev joins NATO. (tl/ez)