NEW YORK TIMES: The speaker of the Russian Parliament said on Friday that Russia would embrace a decision by Crimea to break away from Ukraine and become part of the Russian Federation, the first public signal that the Kremlin would back a secessionist move that Western leaders and the government in Kiev have denounced as a violation of international law…
Hours after the United States announced the first punitive actions against specific Russians, Mr. Obama contacted President Vladimir V. Putin. The two leaders spoke for an hour by telephone and, according to the White House, Mr. Obama urged Mr. Putin to authorize direct talks with Ukraine’s new pro-Western government, permit the entry of international monitors and return his forces to the bases that Russia leases in Crimea.
Early Friday, the Kremlin released a statement offering a starkly different account of the phone call, and emphasizing Russia’s view that the new government in Kiev is illegitimate… (more)
EDITOR: Russia will annex the Crimea. The question is how will this affect the future relationship between the European Union plus the USA and Canada with the Russian Federation in the future Is this but the second (portions of Georgia being the first) of Putin’s intended annexation of vulnerable former members of the Soviet Union?
Stallin re-incarnaterd!