Ukraine’s parliament appointed a new president who instantly set the country on course to closer integration with the European Union, while at the same time says he is “ready for dialogue” with Moscow, which back the president who was toppled over the weekend.

Oleksandr Turchynov is a long-time ally of Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who was jailed for what her supporters and the EU insisted were political reasons.  Tymoshenko reportedly is ruling out another bid for prime minister.

In a televised speech Turchynov said, “We have to return to the family of European countries,” while explaining that he wanted relations with Russia to be “on a new, fair, equal and neighborly basis, acknowledging and taking into account Ukraine's European choice.”

But that choice is hardly unanimous.  Ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s east are wary, and some are talking about secession.  Thousands waved Russian flags at a protest in the port city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, and the crowd voted to establish a parallel administration and civil defense squads. 

To these people, the pro-EU protesters in the west are a reminder of World War II, when some in the west cooperated with the nazis.

“We are not like the Kievans, we will not give up,” said Olga, a pensioner in the crowd.

Crimea was still part of Russia up until 60-years ago when the Soviets transferred it to Ukraine under Nikita Kruschev, an ethnic Ukrainian.