Crimea's pro-Russian new prime minister Saturday asked Moscow for help in the simmering conflict on the Black Sea peninsula, while declaring he was in control of all law enforcement agencies, according to dpa. "I ask President Vladimir Putin for assistance in order to keep peace and calm on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea," Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said in a statement carried by local media. Minutes after Aksyonov's request became public, Russian news agencies cited a source in Putin's administration as saying that the Crimean leader's request "will not go unnoticed." Aksyonov also said his government has taken control of all Ukrainian law enforcement agencies on Crimean territory. "All commanders must carry out only my orders and decrees. I ask those who disagree to quit service," he warned. Aksyonov said he took the decision after the new government in Kiev on Friday sidelined his authorities over the appointment of a new police chief for Crimea, a move he argued that was a breach of the peninsula's autonomous status. US President Barack Obama responded Friday to reports of Russian military movements in Ukraine by warning that "there will be costs" to any military action taken. "Any violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interests of Ukraine, Russia or Europe," Obama said. "It would represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the Ukrainian people." Obama's comments came after armed men seized the airport of Simferopol, the peninsula's capital city. Armed men, described by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov as Russian naval forces, also took control of a military airport near the port of Sevastapol where the Russian Black Sea Fleet has a base. Russia said it had neither deployed troops nor had any role in blockading the airport. Putin on Friday spoke by telephone with European leaders - including British Prime Minister David Cameron, EU President Herman Van Rompuy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel - to assure them that de-escalating tensions in the former Soviet state was an "absolute priority," according to the Kremlin. The Crimean parliament on Thursday appointed Aksyonov - a leader of a local Russian nationalist party - as prime minister. Lawmakers voted to oust his predecessor and vote for him in the presence of gunmen, who had entered the building earlier that day. One of Aksyonov's deputies has said the Crimean government would form its own riot police that would not be subordinate to Kiev. The force will be called Berkut, like the national riot police that was dissolved by the new Ukrainian leadership last week, said the first deputy prime minister, Rustam Temirgaliyev. These moves are likely to further raise tensions between Ukraine and Russia. The Black Sea peninsula is inhabited mainly by ethnic Russians, but Tatars - a Turkic ethnic group that was forcefully deported under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin - today make up 12 per cent of the region's almost 2 million inhabitants
