What Putin’s Tough Talk On Ukraine Says About Him And Crisis
MOSCOW (AP) — In some ways, the venue Vladimir Putin chose and the emotional lecture he gave the world about Russia’s actions in Ukraine said it all.
In an hour-long chat with a handful of Kremlin pool reporters at his presidential residence, Putin sat in an easy chair and spoke with the bravado of an ex-KGB agent suspicious of Western plots.
Wagging his finger at the reporters, the defiant leader dismissed the threat of U.S. and European Union sanctions, alleged that “rampaging neo-Nazis” dominate Ukraine’s capital, and said the Russian and Ukrainian soldiers locked in a standoff in Crimea are actually “brothers in arms.” A look at Putin’s appearance and what it says about the crisis and him.
STANDING TOUGH
Putin has long been famous for his cool public demeanor at public appearances that often are carefully stage managed.
But during Tuesday’s news conference — which was televised live across Russia — he made it clear that he takes the Ukraine crisis personally.
He accepted questions from the reporters about the threat of war in Ukraine, the Russian military takeover of the country’s Crimea Peninsula, and the looming Western sanctions.
But he batted them away with his usual mix of disdainful sarcasm and political arguments in a rapid-fire delivery. When someone’s cellphone rang in the middle of live broadcast, something that reportedly makes him mad, Putin paused then continued his speech.
Putin’s performance seemed to reflect his genuine anger about what he sees as the West’s hypocrisy and its heavy-handed involvement in Ukrainian affairs.
His remarks also showed what many observers have spotted: his deep involvement and strong personal feelings about the Ukrainian crisis, which he blames on the West.
He also seems to see Ukraine as a defining moment of his 14-year rule and a key turning point for the post-Cold War Europe.
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PUTIN’S RATIONALE
Putin acknowledged that the Ukrainians who rallied against their president, Viktor Yanukovych, were driven by anger against corruption and nepotism in his government. But Putin said the nation’s new government is merely “replacing some cheats with others.”
He denounced the ouster of Yanukovych as an “unconstitutional coup and armed seizure of power.” Putin claimed that the radical nationalists wearing swastika-like bands had come to control Kyiv, and alleged that the snipers who shot and killed more than 80 people during the protesters were provocateurs, not government soldiers.
“Armed, masked militants are roaming around Kyiv,” he said. Asked if Russia would recognize the outcome of Ukraine’s election set for May, he said, “We will not if such terror continues.”
He insisted that Yanukovych, who fled to Russia, remains the only legitimate leader of Ukraine. But he also spoke about Yanukovych with disdain, saying he has failed in his presidential duties.
U.S.-TRAINED RADICALS
Putin accused the West of staging the massive protests in the Ukrainian capital in order to reduce Russia’s clout there. He claimed that radical demonstrators involved in violent clashes with police in Kyiv were trained by Western instructors.
“I have a feeling that they sit somewhere in a lab in America over a big puddle and conduct experiments, as if with rats, without understanding the consequences of what they are doing,” he said.
He said the ouster of Yanukovych hours after he had signed a deal to surrender much of his power and hold early elections has plunged Ukraine into chaos and put it on the verge of breakup.
“READY TO USE ALL MEANS”
Putin said that “we reserve the right to use all means we have” to protect Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine from violent Ukrainian nationalists. But he added that he hopes there will be no need for sending Russian troops there.
“We don’t want to enslave anyone or dictate anything,” he said. “But we won’t be able to stay aside, if we see them being hunted down, destroyed and harassed.”
He made it clear that Russia doesn’t see the Ukrainian military as a serious adversary, saying that Russian and the Ukrainian soldiers are “brothers in arms” who will stand “on one side of the barricades.”
He said that weeklong war games in western Russian that involved 150,000 troops, hundreds of tanks and dozens of combat jets, had been planned earlier and weren’t linked to the developments in Ukraine, adding that he ordered them back to their bases.
STANDOFF IN CRIMEA
Putin says that Russian forces in Ukraine’s strategic region of Crimea, which hosts a major Russian naval base, have beefed up security to fend off threats from Ukrainian nationalists. He denied that the troops, who have overtaken Ukrainian military bases across Crimea, were Russian and described them as local “self-defense forces.”
Putin said that Moscow has no intention to annex Crimea. At the same time, he strongly supported a local referendum on Crimea’s status, saying that people there have the right to determine their fate.
TURNING TABLE ON THE WEST
Putin rejected Western accusations of Russian aggression against Ukraine, saying the U.S. should know better, given what it has done.
“We have to remind them about the U.S. action in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, where they acted without any sanction of the United Nations Security Council, or wilfully interpreted its resolution as in the case of Libya,” he said. “Our partners, particularly in the United States, always clearly formulate their geopolitical and state interests and aggressively pursue them. They try to pull the rest of the world under them and start hitting those who put up resistance, eventually finishing them off, as a rule.”
He did not mention that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, starting a war that lasted for nearly a decade and precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union.
THINK TWICE ABOUT SANCTIONS
Putin has shrugged off Western threats to impose political and economic sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine, saying that they will backfire against the West.
“In the modern world, where everything is linked and everyone depends on others in one way or another, we can incur damage to one another, but it would be mutual damage,” he said.
Asked about the possibility that members of the Group of Eight will not show up at its summit scheduled in Sochi in June, he said: “If they don’t want to come, it’s OK.”
From Reuters:
More than 1,000 demonstrators with Ukrainian flags took to the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Tuesday, for the first time outnumbering pro-Moscow youths who have seized its government building, which flies the Russian flag.
President Vladimir Putin’s declaration on Saturday that Russia had the right to invade Ukraine was accompanied by pro-Russian demonstrations across Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking south and east.
But in the four days since, the tide of opinion in eastern cities appears to be turning back towards Kyiv.
Read more here.
— Ryan Craggs
In a blog on The WorldPost that first appeared in The Boston Globe, Professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Nicholas Burns describes Russian President Putin as one of his country’s great chess masters.
Picture him brooding silently over the geopolitical chessboard as he planned his latest move — the weekend’s swift, stunning, and unprovoked invasion of Crimea. His boldness took America and Europe by surprise and gave Putin a decided advantage at the match’s start.
How can President Obama and his European allies counter Putin’s opening gambit? And can the United States roll back what Putin has just pulled off — the violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the heart of Europe?
Read the full piece here.
–Eline Gordts
Though high tensions remain between Ukrainian army soldiers and pro-Russian armed men who occupied the Sevastopol military airport near Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Base in Crimea, nearly 200 Ukrainian soldiers retreat to Ukrainian military base, almost 1 kilometer far away from the airport on March 4, 2014. Russian soldiers block the road with armored vehicles when 200 Ukrainian army forces come close to the Sevastopol military airport. (Bulent Doruk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk met Tuesday with UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson in Kyiv to discuss the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
–Stephen Calabria
The United States received notification from Russia ahead of its test-fire of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Tuesday, in line with Moscow’s commitments under the nuclear arms treaty between the two countries, a U.S. official said.
The official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said initial notification of Russia’s test plans pre-dated Russia’s military intervention in Crimea.
Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces launched an RS-12M Topol missile from the southerly Astrakhan region near the Caspian Sea and the dummy warhead hit its target at a proving ground in Kazakhstan, Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov told state-run news agency RIA.
–Eline Gordts
From Mediaite:
On CNN last night, Anderson Cooper gave viewers an in-depth and harrowing look at the barricades Ukrainians have been camping out in. Cooper said that there were “hundreds of protestors” living at the barricades until the cause they have been fighting for comes to fruition. And, he added, if change doesn’t happen soon, “they’re ready to take out the fight again.”
Cooper walked viewers through the barricades, showing piles of sandbags protestors set up, as well as a small memorial site where people left candles, flowers and religious paraphernalia. There’s also an area where they’ve hung up photos of those who died in remembrance.
View the segment and photos here.
The U.S., UK, and France have all pulled out of the G-8 summit, planned to be held in Russia this year. Now, the world’s top industrialized nations are thinking of meeting elsewhere, without Russia.
“I spoke to President Obama on that on the weekend, I’ve suggested that, and I know there are discussions among G7 sherpas (senior officials) about the possibility of a G7 meeting in the upcoming weeks,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the Canadian Parliament, according to Reuters.
–Braden Goyette
A Russian guard pointed his gun at an ABC news van driving along the Ukrainian Belbek air base.
Watch here.
–Stephen Calabria
iPolitics journalist Michelle Zilio tweets announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
BREAKING: “All planned bilateral activities between the Canadian Armed Forces and military of the Russian Federation … suspended” – Harper
— Michelle Zilio (@MichelleZilio) March 4, 2014
Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted a photo of his meeting with Ukraine’s acting prime minister and president in Kyiv on Tuesday.
This is an important time for #Ukraine. Positive discussions today with legitimate Acting PM President in Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/MsuWXsiBvO
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) March 4, 2014
The WorldPost has compiled a list of journalists, activists and media outlets providing the most up-to-date news and opinions on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Follow the list here for the latest updates.
Emmanual Dreyfus argues in Le Monde Diplomatique that now Ukraine’s set for new elections, it is crucial to explore the roots and history of the different movements in the opposition.
The involvement of several nationalist groups — a small but highly visible presence — and of ultra-radical, non-democratic movements without European sympathies has produced different reactions. Their presence was used actively by Russia, and to some extent by Yanukovych’s government, to discredit the movement. But it also raised fears of a possible takeover of Independence Square by the far right — even though a popular movement was behind the protests and any attempt to categorize it in political terms would be an over-simplification.
Read Dreyfus’ interesting primer here.
Russia test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday, according to Interfax. The test was conducted in Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia.
While having no ostensible connection to the crisis in Ukraine, the test seemed to hark back to Soviet days when a missile test was a sign of saber-rattling.
–Luke Johnson
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the United States could move on sanctions toward Russia for its military activity in Ukraine within the next 30 days.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Hoyer said he expected Congress to act swiftly on an aid package to Ukraine. Sanctions, he added, depended on how soon the ongoing crisis is resolved.
“Certainly within the next 30 days, if it’s not resolved, then the international community needs to take action, including the United States,” Hoyer said at his weekly briefing. “I strongly support … [that] there need to be adverse consequences toward the Russians.”
“Sanctions are going to clearly be considered by the United States and perhaps by the United Nations,” he added.
Both chambers of Congress are moving quickly on economic assistance to Ukraine, with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee eying billion in aid. The corresponding committee in the House is developing its own legislation, which is expected to include targeted sanctions against Russian officials.
Hoyer said he supported aid to Ukraine, adding that it would be an “appropriate step” for the U.S. to withdraw from the G-8 summit scheduled for June in Sochi. The Obama administration has already pulled out of preparatory meetings for the summit — a message President Barack Obama personally relayed to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a 90-minute phone call Saturday.
Hoyer said the response from the international community “needs to be strong,” but added that military options were not on the table.
“We’re not talking about military action,” he said.
–Sabrina Siddiqui
A woman holds an umbrella as she stands on the pier in Sevastopol on March 4, 2014 watching a covert of coots and military ships. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images)
Agence France-Presse describes the numerous difficulties Western nations face following the Russian occupation of Crimea, the pro-Russian peninsula in Ukraine. The news agency says the West appears on the same page about Russia’s intervention, but that military action is not the solution.
“As things stand, no one is prepared to die for Sevastopol,” one European diplomat said.
AFP goes on to say the West may need to accept Russia’s claim to the predominantly Russian-speaking region in an effort to de-escalate present tensions. That idea is further complicated, however, by Russian pressure on former Soviet states wishing to join the European Union, including Georgia and Moldova.
Read the entire AFP report here.
–Ryan Craggs
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the Russian invasion into Ukraine has its roots in…Benghazi.
It started with Benghazi. When you kill Americans and nobody pays a price, you invite this type of aggression. #Ukraine
— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) March 4, 2014
Russia, of course, undertook a similar action in Georgia over four years before Benghazi.
— Luke Johnson
From Reuters:
U.S. stocks rallied on Tuesday, with the SP 500 at a record high, as fears of a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine eased and Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no need to use military force in the Crimea region right now.
Read more here.
–Stephen Calabria
INFOGRAPHIC: Map showing Russian gas pipelines transiting Ukraine http://t.co/mFGotkQ5Y7
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) 2 years ago
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would respond to sanctions by the United States, but did not specify how.
“That means that we will have to answer,” said spokesman Aleksander Lukashevich in a statement carried by Interfax, “and it won’t necessarily mirror.”
“As always in such situations provoked by reckless and irresponsible actions of Washington, we underline: this is not our choice,” he said.