Obama and Putin clash over Ukraine

 President Barack Obama has told Russian President
Vladimir Putin that his dispatch of troops to Ukraine
flouted international law and warned he was courting
political isolation if the incursion continues. Obama also spelled out the right of the Ukrainian people
to chart their own destiny and symbolically began to line
up the long-time Western alliance against Russia,
calling the leaders of France and Canada. US Secretary of State John Kerry also hosted a joint
conference call with six other foreign ministers from
Europe and Canada as well as EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton and the Japanese envoy to the US “to
coordinate on next steps.” Obama’s 90-minute telephone call with Putin
represented the kind of direct confrontation between the
men who run the White House and the Kremlin rarely
seen since the end of the Cold War, the AFP news
agency reported. The White House account of the call was unusually
detailed and blunt, hinting at tense exchanges as
fractures deepened in a relationship that has been
deteriorating since Putin returned as president in 2012. “President Obama expressed his deep concern over
Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and
territorial integrity,” the White House said. Obama told Putin his actions were a “breach of
international law, including Russia’s obligations under
the UN Charter, and of its 1997 military basing
agreement with Ukraine.” Kerry also warned in a later statement that Moscow was
risking the peace and security not just of Ukraine, but
also the wider region. If Russia did not de-escalate tensions, it would have a
“profound” effect on ties with the US, said Kerry, who is
due to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on
the sidelines of talks in Rome next week. Asked about the tone of the call, a senior US official
resorted to diplomatic parlance indicating an
uncomfortable conversation, describing it as “what
you’d expect: candid and direct.”

Vanguard