As Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to meet his Russian counterpart in London for last-ditch talks Friday aimed at averting a rushed referendum on Crimea’s reincorporation into Russia, neither Russia nor the separatist authorities in Crimea show any sign of backing down.
President Obama’s decision to send Kerry comes just two days after the State Department said Kerry would only meet with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Crimea situation “if and when we see concrete evidence that Russia is prepared to engage on these proposals.”
“We think there needs to be concrete evidence that Russia is prepared to engage on these proposals and in these discussions in a serious way,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday, referring to the possibility of a Kerry-Lavrov meeting.
So far Moscow has shunned U.S. proposals to resolve the dispute, primarily because it refuses to talk to Ukraine’s new government, which it regards as illegitimate.
Russian media are characterizing the results of Sunday’s referendum as all but inevitable, predicting that the two million inhabitants of the Russian-majority region of Ukraine will strongly support the Black Sea peninsula becoming the 84th member of the Russian Federation.
The Kremlin has said it will “respect” the outcome, and the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, also has said it will support Crimea’s decision to join Russia if the vote goes that way. The Federation Council is sending “observers” to monitor the exercise.
In Crimea itself, the region’s pro-Russian government said interim results in the referendum will be available as early as Sunday.
In a further provocative move, the region’s “prime minister,” Sergei Aksenov, said Ukrainian Navy ships that have been seized in Crimea will not be returned to Ukraine, Interfax reported. (Crimea’s Sevastopol is home to the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet, and also the headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy.)
Aksenov is wanted by the authorities in Ukraine for “actions aimed at the violent overthrow, change of constitutional order, or the seizure of state power.”
At the White House, Obama attacked the referendum plan, saying alongside Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk that it would be contrary to international law and to Ukraine’s national constitution.
Obama criticized Russia for trying to draw a comparison between the Crimea referendum and situations elsewhere, including Scotland’s planned referendum on independence next September.
Kudos to Russia for sticking to it's guns and not wanting the NWO (EU and US Government) to succeed in it's push to form a one-world government. If the people of Crimea want to retain their sovereignty from the EU, then Godspeed, Crimea!
Make no mistake…. Russia and China will be FORCED to destroy our beautiful United States of America if WE do not stop the NWO puppets from destroying the sovereignty of nations….It is up to us to avert disaster. We need to act.
Now, here is the question. Does Crimea want to be part of Russia, the Ukraine or be totally independent? I think it is up to the PEOPLE.
Was Crimea made an independent nation by Russia? Or did it claim it on its own, when the Soviet Union collapsed? It may be wrong to write now about speaking or writing about returning it to Russia. Russia was just one of the many nations seized by communist wars, etc. since 1917. To write now, after the Russian military, in unmarked uniforms, swept into the Crimea at the direction of one V. Putin, with words from the puppets that his forces put in power, as if they have any way to be accepted as people able to speak for the free will of citizens of an independent nation is just wrong! To rush to a phony evidence of a free election is equally wrong. Its a charade for the media to see or write about. Disinformation is the hallmark of Putin. One hopes that historians will record that the choice to be controlled and ruled by Moscow's Putin is a farce. It should be remembered as such, not as a free-will democratic process. One doesn't vote freely when a gun is at one's head, but it doesn't matter to those that have counted the thug's planned results before the voters have dropped meaningless ballots into a box.
PG, I couldn't agree with you any more! It's laughable to think that Putin as well as the rest of the world gives a rat's ass about what these 60's college peacenik, punk-$ss communists have to say. These pseudo-intellectual know-it-alls only know how to run their mouths and America into the ground which is their goal – they are almost there and the ef'n sheeple had better have an epiphany and realize this! REVOLUTION is the SOLUTION!
YEAH, I CAN JUST ABOUT GUESS HOW THIS IS GONNA TURN OUT….I CAN'T IMAGINE SENDING THAT MORON KERRY HELPED MATTERS EITHER. THAT GUY'S ONLY MARGINALLY BETTER THAN IF COMRADE OBAMA HAD SENT BIDEN TO DEAL WITH IT. AT LEAST WE'D HAVE SURELY GOTTEN A GAG REEL OUTTA THAT. KERRY JUST FURTHER EMBARASSED US, BUT WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM A DEMON-RAT ? ANYBODY REMEMBER CARTER'S IDEA OF FOREIGN POLICY THAT BROUGHT US THE IRAN HOSTAGE CRISIS ? NEVER HAVE A DEMON-RAT DEAL WITH FOREIGN POLICY – NOTHING GOOD EVER COMES OUT OF IT. PROBABLY DON'T HELP MATTERS THAT THESE POOR FOLKS ARE LITERALLY VOTING UNDER THE GUN EITHER…………………………………
You make some valid points:
"with words from the puppets that his forces put in power, as if they have any way to be accepted as people able to speak for the free will of citizens of an independent nation is just wrong!"
and,
"To rush to a phony evidence of a free election is equally wrong. Its a charade for the media to see or write about."
and,
"Disinformation is the hallmark of…"
Only problem is that you refer to the wrong parties! The US and EU enabled, financed and armed the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine. Then they have the unmitigated gall to criticize Russia for "violating the sovereignty" of the country. Seriously! The US and EU were the first to violate the country's sovereignty. Russia was invited by the Autonomous Regional Government of the Ukraine to protect them from the criminals that staged the illegal coup.
Crimea understands the gang that seized control in neighboring Ukraine are not the elected government of the people, but a coup d'etat. When the lawfully elected government of Ukraine called for early elections, that was when the US and Israel kicked off these riots that led to the violent takeover, because the West couldn't afford to wait and see if the Ukrainian people re-elected Yanukovich.
Just as the "Free Syrian Army" of US-and-Israeli-financed mercenaries is not made up of the Syrian people. The "rebels" that supposedly represent a "popular uprising" against Assad are massacreing soldiers, civilian men, women and children.
Self determination should be sacrosanct even to these vampires….and yes you are right we will get the dirty end of the stick if we don't stop gouging Russia…..they can collapse the dollar and these idiots are talking about sanctions.
I would bet Obama would be approving the Keystone pipeline if he thought he could get the oil business to the E.U. away from Putin. I suspect this is the whole reason we are meddling in the Ukraine
Disinformation in the form of psyops is a hallmark of these nations being destabilized and forced into REGIME CHANGE.
Putin wisely kicked our NGOs out of Russia but they sure have been the devil in the Ukraine. Our puppet now in charge is evidentially a failure….he let those nazis raid the arsenals and get away with ground to air missile launchers. Sound familiar? Same thing happened in Libya.
I agree….but the whole point is we have no business meddling in the Ukraine.
The hostage crisis in Iran was the result of actions just like what is happening in the Ukraine today. We instrumented a coup to depose the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED Mossedech and imposed the ruthless Shah of Iran on them. They finally ejected that rat and then we wound up with the Mullahs so we got what we deserved.
Mossedech was tired of selling their oil for pennies on the dollar to what is now BP and he nationalized it, so that was his big crime.
CIA black ops in these countries should be outlawed from making this mischief….it always backfires on us.
Exactly right Danno…..the usual suspects.
Destabilize – install puppet – divide the natural resources.
Russia stands between Israel and the U.S against. in Syria and Iran…..this is his come uppance.
Good thing Obama sent Kerry because if we need to retreat, he has plenty of experience. Look at his record.
Crimea is an autonomous republic aligned with Ukraine. And being autonomous and majority Russian, it's none of the world's business what they want to do. If they want to join Russia then that's what they should be able to do.
Please post a map showing the Crimea region of the Ukraine.
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