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A police officer and pro-Russian demonstrators tussle with a topless Femen activist outside
the Crimean parliament in Simferopol. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP
Crimea solidifies ties with Russia ahead of referendum on leaving Ukraine - WP
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, says Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will present possible diplomatic solutions, thought up by the US and Europe, to President Vladimir Putin. Speaking at the US embassy in Rome, Kerry says the international community must move quickly if they are to best use the opportunity for an agreement between Russia and Ukraine
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BERLIN (Reuters) - After one of her first encounters with Vladimir Putin in 2002, Angela Merkel joked to aides that she had passed the "KGB test" by staring straight into his eyes without averting her gaze.
Unlike presidents in Washington - George W. Bush claimed to have gotten a glimpse of Putin's soul and Barack Obama promised to "reset" relations with Russia - the German chancellor has never harbored any illusions about the former Soviet agent, nor hopes that she might change him.
It is this hard-nosed realism, born of Merkel's own experience growing up in a Soviet garrison town in East Germany and reinforced over a turbulent 14-year relationship with Putin, that has earned her respect in the Kremlin and thrust her into the potentially risky role of chief mediator in the Ukrainecrisis.
When Merkel and Putin interact it is a clash of polar opposite world views, aides to the chancellor say.
For Merkel, the physicist, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a godsend that launched her extraordinary career as a politician.
For Putin, who was living in the East German city of Dresden at the time, it was a calamity that led within two short years to the collapse of the Soviet Union - an event the Russian leader has described as the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.
But despite different outlooks, Merkel and Putin, born less than two years apart, speak each other's language - literally and figuratively.
Merkel, a fan of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, won a trip to Moscow as a teenager for her mastery of the Russian language.
Putin's favorite subject in school was German, which he perfected during his half decade as a KGB officer in Dresden, later sending his daughters to the German school in Moscow.
On Merkel's first trip to Moscow as chancellor, the two leaders conversed in their native tongues with translators present, but found themselves interjecting repeatedly to correct the interpreters. Aides say their conversations follow the same pattern to this day.
"They have been working together for over a decade," said Alexander Rahr, head of the German-Russian forum in Berlin. "It hasn't always been smooth, but Putin knows Merkel better and respects her more than the other leaders. He's never had a good relationship with Obama."
"ALWAYS A BATTLE"
Since the overthrow of Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich last month and Putin's decision to respond by tightening Russia's grip on Crimea, the autonomous southern region ofUkraine, the two leaders have talked on the phone roughly half a dozen times.
The conversations have not been easy, according to German sources.
Putin speaks a lot, sometimes endlessly. At times emotional and angry, he tries to bully with a mix of genuine and calculated outrage. The reserved Merkel waits patiently for the right time to make her points.
"It is always exhausting, always a battle - intense," one senior German official told Reuters.
In his 2013 biography of Merkel, Stefan Kornelius likened them to an old married couple who know all of each other's tricks and can anticipate what they are going to say next.
Merkel has described her conversations with Putin as challenging tests for her own arguments. She feels that she cannot afford to show any weakness.
In a conversation with the White House on Sunday that followed a chat with Putin, she reportedly told Obama that the Russian leader appeared to be "in another world", out of touch with reality.
In public, Merkel took care not to criticize Putin too loudly in the first weeks of the Ukraine crisis, fearing it would backfire and make the Russian leader harden his positions.
That changed last weekend when an unusually tough statement from her office said she had accused Putin in a phone call of breaching international law with his "unacceptable intervention" in Crimea.
On Thursday in Brussels, she said the EU would follow the United States in introducing visa bans and asset freezes unless Putin moved quickly towards a negotiated settlement on Ukraine.
The new tone was a reminder of the different world views in a relationship that is based firmly on strategic interests rather than friendship.
DOG INCIDENT
In 2005, Merkel defeated the Russian's close ally Gerhard Schroeder, who had once referred to Putin as a "flawless democrat". Within weeks of leaving office, Schroeder took a job as board chairman of Nord Stream, the pipeline majority-owned by Russian gas monopoly Gazprom.
On her first visit to Moscow as chancellor she made a point of inviting human rights campaigners and opposition figures to a reception at the German embassy, something Schroeder would never have done.
A year later, when Merkel paid a visit to the president's Black Sea residence in Crimea, Putin infuriated the Germans by allowing his big black labrador Koni to bound into the room while cameras were running, ignoring warnings from protocol that the chancellor has a fear of dogs.
More recently, the two clashed at an exhibition at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, which included German art seized by the Soviets at the end of World War Two. In a tense exchange at the opening last June, Merkel demanded the works be returned to Germany, only to be rebuffed by Putin.
Amid the sparring, Merkel has also sided with Putin at key moments, bolstering her credibility in Moscow as an honest broker.
At a NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, Merkel refused to bow to pressure from Bush and other leaders to put Georgia and Ukraine on track for membership in the western military alliance, a move the German leader knew would infuriate Putin.
She also sided with Russia in abstaining from the 2011 U.N. vote authorizing intervention in Libya and pleased Putin with her sharp public criticism of the United States last year following reports the National Security Agency had monitored her mobile phone.
"What is important for Putin is what Merkel thinks, what China thinks and what the CIS countries think," a senior Russian security source told Reuters, dismissing the largely symbolic measures unveiled by Obama on Thursday as having zero impact on the Russian leader.
Still, even members of Merkel's entourage believe that her ability to sway Putin is limited. In the Ukraine crisis, they say, the Russian leader's behavior has been driven primarily by domestic considerations.
By embracing the role of mediator, Merkel is running a big risk. She has urged western partners to give Putin more time before punishing Moscow with really punitive economic sanctions.
This stance that reflects German fears of the geopolitical consequences of an isolated Russia as much as it does concern about its business interests and energy ties. Germany gets over a third of its oil and gas from Russia and more than 6,000 German firms are active in the country.
But if Putin refuses to follow her advice on pursuing a negotiated solution to the Ukraine crisis and consolidates Russian control of Crimea in the days ahead, she runs the risk of looking soft and naive.
"Merkel's chances of influencing Putin are overstated," said Stefan Meister of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
"She has a relationship with him, there is a certain trust and he listens to her, but there are limits to what impact that might have," he said. "Putin has a very clear strategic goal in Crimea and he is not going to be persuaded by Germany."
(Additional reporting by Stephen Brown, Andreas Rinke and Lidia Kelly; Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Stephen Brown and Giles Elgood)
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This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
Russian President bloodwork and likens U S involvement in Ukraine to ... scientific experiments ... that like they're in a lavender running all sorts of experiments on the rocks without understanding the consequences of what they're doing ... at school one of our subjective list of Mr Putin's most colorful comments ... Mr prudent has a flair for folksy idioms for instance when he announced he would not be handed over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to America ... because to do so would be ... like during ... lots of squealing ... these ... pigs of course have no CME's ... deal with Russian saying reports the Republic is a metaphor for hard thankless work ... the former KGB agent who like to project an alpha male and occasionally topless image ... was publicly threatened the manhood of Chechen rebels ... if you want to become a real radical Islam to prepare to be circumcised ... an invite to Moscow said ... you have nothing left to go back ... to some more matches Russia's Mafia ... you must obey the laws and ways not only when they grab you by your special place ... that has been coming under heavy criticism for being not so special place for gays and lesbians ... Mr prudent insists he has no problem getting people to an interviewer ... Tchaikovsky was a homosexual ... truth be told we don't love him because of its ... but he was a great musician ... Carrasco comes to a CD of former US president ... says he once looked into Mr Putin's eyes and was able to get a sense of his soul ... president George W Bush Rice she got the Sands Mr. ping was unimpressed ... by the need to Bush's dog ... introducing Mr Bush to his big black Labrador Mr. Patten said ... bigger stronger and faster than Barney ... when Mr. Bushnell distorted Prime Minister Stephen
Updated March 7, 2014 6:21 a.m. ET
MOSCOW—Russia's upper house of parliament will support Crimea in its bid to join the Russian Federation, the speaker of the upper house of parliament said Friday.
"If the people of Crimea decide to join Russia in the referendum, we, as the upper house, will certainly support this decision," Valentina Matvienko said at a meeting with Vladimir Konstantinov, his counterpart in the Crimean parliament.
A delegation from the Crimean peninsula were in Moscow to meet parliamentarians who warmly welcomed the guests and signaled their willingness to support the neighboring region.
Later Friday a group of military and civilian personnel from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are making another attempt to enter the Crimean peninsula, after being stopped at two border checkpoints the day before, a spokesman for the organization said.
"The group is on their way from Kherson, where they spent the night, and is heading to a checkpoint in the area of a village called Chungar," Shiv Sharma said, adding that the group of about 40 people is scheduled to arrive around 1330 local time (1130 GMT).
The group, from 22 of the OSCE member states, is traveling to Crimea to assess the situation on Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula from a military perspective.
On Thursday, the Moscow-backed authorities in Crimea, a region where ethnic Russians are the majority, called for the referendum in mid-March to confirm their plan to secede from Ukraine and to make the region part of Russia.
U.S. and European leaders said such a referendum would violate the Ukrainian constitution and international law. The West also warned that financial and political sanctions could be imposed against Russia.
In a phone conversation, Russia's President Vladimir Putin told his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama that the discord over crisis-stricken Ukraine shouldn't harm relations between their two countries.
"These relations should not be sacrificed due to discord over particular though important international problems," the Kremlin said on its website.
Ms. Matvienko hosted an enthusiastic reception for the Crimean delegation and called them "patriots." She has also reiterated Russia's official position Friday that the new government in Ukraine isn't legitimate as it was formed as a result of an "anti-constitutional coup."
Write to Andrey Ostroukh at andrey.ostroukh@wsj.com
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied he is "orchestrating events" in Ukraine's Crimea peninsular, and says he is simply responding to a request for help.
He spoke out after Moscow was warned it faces further sanctions if it fails to pull its forces out of Ukraine, as the gravest post-Cold War stand-off between the West and Russia continues.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said if the first round of sanctions do not work, the West will consider targeting businesses and individuals close to Mr Putin, Reuters reported.
Overnight, US President Barack Obama spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for an hour, trying to convince him to accept the terms of a potential diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis.
After the call, the Russian leader said the two sides were still far apart.
It came as Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia, and announced they will hold a referendum in nine days.
The move has sparked a dramatic escalation in the crisis - and was immediately condemned by Mr Obama.
In Russia, the Upper House of Parliament said Crimea has the right to hold a referendum on its future status.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called it an "illegal decision" by Crimea's authorities.
He said Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but Moscow must first withdraw its troops, abide by international agreements and halt its support for "separatists and terrorists".
Former Kremlin spin doctor Gleb Pavlovsky said there was now a greater danger of shots being fired in Crimea.
"Russia is encouraging the action of local forces," he said.
"We are at a very dangerous point, and it threatens to push a political crisis in the direction of a military situation."
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Paralympic chief Valeriy Sushkevich said his team would compete in the Winter Paralympics in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
But he said they would pull out of the Games, which begin this afternoon, if Russian forces invade mainland Ukraine.
Mr Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine, including bans on travel to America and freezing of their US assets
He also echoed European Union leaders and the pro-Western government in Ukraine in insisting the referendum would violate international law.
He said Russians and Ukrainians involved in what he called "threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine" would be punished - although a US official said Mr Putin was not on the list of those to be sanctioned.
"The proposed referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the Ukrainian constitution and violate international law," Mr Obama told reporters at the White House.
"Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government of Ukraine."
But in a statement released by the Kremlin early on Friday, Mr Putin said Kiev's new authorities had imposed "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions".
"Russia cannot ignore calls for help in this matter and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with the international law," he said.
Russia's Foreign Ministry also hit out at Nato's decision to curb its co-operation with Moscow - and said it showed a "biased and prejudiced approach" over Ukraine.
"We see as extremely dangerous attempts to bring in the 'Nato factor' to Ukraine, where the situation is complex and delicate as it is, as it creates additional tension and undermines the prospects for settling the situation," it said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Nato announced a full review of its co-operation with Russia and said it would suspend planning for a joint mission linked to Syria's chemical weapons.
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MOSCOW/SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin rebuffed a warning from U.S. President Barack Obama over Moscow's military intervention in Crimea, saying on Friday that Russiacould not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.
After an hour-long telephone call, Putin said in a statement that Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, where he said the new authorities had taken "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.
"Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law," Putin said.
The most serious east-west confrontation since the end of the Cold War - resulting from the overthrow last month of President Viktor Yanukovich after violent protests in Kiev - escalated on Thursday when Crimea's parliament, dominated by ethnic Russians, voted to join Russia. The region's government set a referendum for March 16 - in just nine days' time.
European Union leaders and Obama denounced the referendum as illegitimate, saying it would violate Ukraine's constitution.
The head of Russia's upper house of parliament said after meeting visiting Crimean lawmakers on Friday that Crimea had a right to self-determination, and ruled out any risk of war between "the two brotherly nations".
Before calling Putin, Obama announced the first sanctions against Russia since the start of the crisis, ordering visa bans and asset freezes against so far unidentified persons deemed responsible for threatening Ukraine's sovereignty.
Japan endorsed the Western position that the actions of Russia, whose forces have seized control of the Crimean peninsula, constitute "a threat to international peace and security", after Obama spoke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
China, often a Russian ally in blocking Western moves in the U.N. Security Council, was more cautious, saying that economic sanctions were not the best way to solve the crisis and avoiding comment on the legality of a Crimean referendum on secession.
The EU, Russia's biggest economic partner and energy customer, adopted a three-stage plan to try to force a negotiated solution but stopped short of immediate sanctions.
Brussels and Washington also rushed to strengthen the new authorities in economically shatteredUkraine, announcing both political and financial assistance.
Promises of billions of dollars in Western aid for the Kiev government, and the perception that Russian troops are not likely to go beyond Crimea into other parts of Ukraine, have helped reverse a rout in the local hryvnia currency.
In the past two days it has traded above 9.0 to the dollar for the first time since the Crimea crisis began last week. Local dealers said emergency currency restrictions imposed last week were also supporting the hryvnia.
IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES
In their telephone call, Obama said he urged Putin to accept the terms of a potential diplomatic solution to the dispute over Crimea that would take account of Russia's legitimate interests in the region.
Putin was defiant on Ukraine, where he said the pro-Russian Yanukovich had been ousted in an "anti-constitutional coup". But he underlined what he called "the paramount important of Russian-American relations to ensure stability and security in the world", the Kremlin said.
"These relations should not be sacrificed for individual differences, albeit very important ones, over international problems," Putin said.
He maintained Moscow was not behind the seizure of Crimea, home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Russia says the troops without insignia that have surround Ukrainian bases are "local self-defense units". The West has ridiculed this argument.
The 28-nation EU welcomed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk to an emergency summit, even though Kiev is neither a member nor a recognized candidate to join the bloc, and agreed to bring forward the signing of the political parts of an agreement on closer ties before Ukraine's May 25 elections.
Yatseniuk said after returning to Ukraine that no one in the civilized world would recognize the result of the "so-called referendum" in Crimea. He repeated Kiev's willingness to negotiate with Russia and said he had requested a telephone call with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The European Commission said Ukraine could receive up to 11 billion euros ($15 billion) in the next couple of years provided it reaches agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which requires painful economic reforms like ending gas subsidies.
UKRAINIANS CONFIDENT
Despite Putin's tough words, demonstrators who have remained encamped in Kiev's central Independence Square to defend the revolution that ousted Yanukovich said they did not believe Crimea would be allowed to secede.
Some said they were willing to go to war with Russia, despite the mismatch between the two countries' armed forces.
"We are optimists. Crimea will stand with us and we will fight for it," said Taras Yurkiv, 35, from the eastern city of Lviv. "How we will fight depends on the decisions of our leadership. If necessary, we will go with force. If you want peace, you must prepare for war."
Alexander Zaporozhets, 40, from central Ukraine's Kirovograd region, put his faith in international pressure.
"I don't think the Russians will be allowed to take Crimea from us: you can't behave like that to an independent state. We have the support of the whole world. But I think we are losing time. While the Russians are preparing, we are just talking."
On the ground in Crimea, the situation was calm although 35 unarmed military observers dispatched by the pan-European Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were denied entry into the peninsula on Thursday after landing in the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa.
A U.N. special envoy who traveled to the regional capital Simferopol on Tuesday was surrounded by pro-Russian protesters, some of them armed, and forced to leave on Tuesday. The United Nations said it had sent its assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, to Kiev to conduct a preliminary humans rights assessment.
Ukrainian television was switched off in Crimea on Thursday and replaced with Russian state channels.
The streets largely belong to people who support Moscow's rule, some of whom have become increasingly aggressive in the past week, harassing journalists and occasional pro-Kiev protesters.
Part of the Crimea's 2 million population opposes Moscow's rule, including members of the region's ethnic Russian majority. The last time Crimeans were asked, in 1991, they voted narrowly for independence along with the rest of Ukraine.
"This announcement that we are already part of Russia provokes nothing but tears," said Tatyana, 41, an ethnic Russian. "With all these soldiers here, it is like we are living in a zoo. Everyone fully understands this is an occupation."
(Additional reporting by Luke Baker and Martin Santa in Brussels, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason in Washington, Lina Kushch in Donetsk and Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing byGiles Elgood)
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After announcing his sanctions at midday, Obama emphasized his resolve in a personal telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin later Thursday, the White House said. In a one-hour discussion, Obama affirmed his contention that Russia’s actions violate Ukraine’s sovereignty.
The U.S. president told Putin there was still a way to resolve the dispute diplomatically, the White House said — with Russian forces moving back to their base in Crimea, the governments of Ukraine and Russia holding direct talks and international monitors arriving.
The U.S. is also calling on Russia to recognize the legitimacy of Ukrainian plans for elections in May, not the Crimean referendum a week from Sunday.
In all, signs still pointed to a continuing diplomatic battle over Ukraine and what could prove a broader fault line in Europe’s post-Cold War order.
While East and West no longer threaten nuclear war and have vastly expanded commercial ties, Russia is determined to dominate the future of the former Soviet republics along its borders. Washington, its NATO partners and others across the continent are striving to pull these nations out of Moscow’s orbit.
Underscoring his position, Obama issued an executive action slapping new visa restrictions on Russian and other opponents of Ukraine’s government in Kiev and authorizing wider financial penalties against those involved in the military intervention or in stealing state assets. None of the measures appeared aimed at the Russian president personally.
“Today the world can see that the United States is united with our allies and partners in upholding international law and pursuing a just outcome that advances global security and the future that the Ukrainian people deserve,” Obama said at the White House. “That’s what we’re going to continue to do in the days to come until we have seen a resolution to this crisis.”
Obama hailed U.S. cooperation with the European Union, which imposed its own sanctions on Russia on Thursday. In an emergency meeting in Brussels, EU leaders decided to suspend talks with Putin’s government on a wide-ranging economic agreement and on granting Russian citizens visa-free travel within the 28-nation bloc — a long-standing Russian objective. Yet at the same time, Europe’s presidents and prime ministers were divided on more drastic steps such as freezing assets and issuing travel bans on Russian officials.
European hesitancy reflected the reality that targeting influential Russian businessmen or major Russian companies would also harm Europe’s economic interests. Russian investors hold assets worth billions in European banks, particularly in Britain and Cyprus, and major exporters such as Germany and the Netherlands have far more at stake than the United States in Russia’s consumer economy. Many other European countries depend on Russia for oil and gas supplies.
Russian troops have seized control of much of Crimea, where ethnic Russians are the majority. Moscow doesn’t recognize the Ukrainian government that came to power after protesters ousted the country’s pro-Russian president last month. Putin and other officials have cited strategic interests as well as the protection of ethnic Russians in making the case for intervention. Russia leases a major navy base there.
The Western debate over how strongly to penalize Russia is important given that neither the U.S. nor Europe is advocating the use of force. The U.S. military has stepped up joint aviation training with Polish forces and American participation in NATO’s air-policing mission in its Baltic countries. But the Pentagon, like its NATO partners, has strictly ruled out military options.
In the latest threatening move Thursday, Crimean lawmakers voted 78-0 to schedule a referendum on March 16 on whether the region should secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
Obama said such a vote would “violate the Ukrainian constitution and violate international law.” Because Ukraine is a member of the United Nations, any action that is unconstitutional in Ukraine would be considered illegitimate in international law.
But the West supported Kosovo’s independence six years ago, which included no consent by Serbia’s government and occurred despite Russian objections, Obama might have been trying to differentiate Ukraine’s situation by arguing that borders shouldn’t be “redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.”
The U.S. sanctions push has prompted a rare case of broad agreement among the Obama administration and most Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
The House of Representatives voted 385-23 on Thursday in favor of the first U.S. aid bill for Ukraine’s fledgling government, following on an Obama administration promise of $1 billion in loan guarantees. The House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved a separate resolution condemning Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea and urging visa, financial and trade sanctions. Senators are at work on a larger bill putting together all elements of a U.S. response and hope to introduce the legislation next week.
The EU offered $15 billion in aid to help Ukraine’s cash-depleted economy on Wednesday, still far short of the $35 billion that Ukraine’s government says it needs in bailout loans through next year. The U.S., EU and others are trying to work out a package with the International Monetary Fund.
Showing greater caution than Obama on sanctions, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European penalties against Russia depend “on how the diplomatic process progresses.” EU President Herman Van Rompuy said travel bans, asset freezes and the cancellation of an EU-Russia summit could still come. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk acknowledged “no enthusiasm” in Europe for economic sanctions.
Western leaders fear Russia is becoming entrenched in Crimea and could turn its focus to Ukraine’s industrial heart in the east, where Russian speakers similarly are a majority. Central and Eastern European countries that lived for decades under the Soviet Union’s domination are especially sensitive to the threat. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite warned, “After Ukraine will be Moldova, and after Moldova will be different countries.”
For the U.S. and its allies, the specter of Georgia’s 2008 schism looms large. After a nine-day war between Russia and Georgia’s then pro-Western government, the Kremlin supported two regions in breaking away from Georgia. Most of the world doesn’t recognize their independence, but Russia protects their autonomy. Then, as now, the U.S. and EU reaction was limited in scope and included no military moves. In the United States, Obama initiated a “reset” of ties with Russia less than a year later.
With Ukraine at risk of a similar fate, the U.S. has suspended talks on an investment treaty with Russia. NATO has halted military cooperation with Russia and has decided to review all aspects of the relationship with Moscow. The U.S. and European countries have halted preparations for a planned June summit in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.
But so far Putin hasn’t budged. His government claims that Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted president, remains the leader of Ukraine. The pro-Russian Yanukovych fled to a location near Moscow for protection.
Also Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry met again with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Kerry stressed a need for a direct Russian-Ukrainian dialogue and the importance of allowing international monitors into Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Diplomatic progress appeared elusive.
Speaking to reporters later, Kerry emphasized that Ukraine must remain whole.
“Crimea is part of Ukraine,” Kerry said. “Crimea is Ukraine.”
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Lara Jakes reported from Rome. AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington and AP writers Juergen Baetz and Mike Corder in Brussels and Yuras Karmanau in Simferopol, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Updated March 6, 2014 3:07 p.m. ET
Ukraine's breakaway territory of Crimea said Thursday that it will hold a referendum on March 16 whether to formally secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. WSJ's Margaret Coker joins on the News Hub from Crimea. Photo: Getty
The Moscow-backed government of Crimea set a referendum in 10 days to ratify its decision to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, dramatically escalating tension as the West tries to negotiate a withdrawal of Russian troops from the area.
The step Thursday came as Western diplomats were huddled in Rome with their Russian counterparts to end the political standoff, and just two days after President Vladimir Putin said Russiawasn't interested in annexing Crimea.
U.S. and European leaders said such a referendum would violate the Ukrainian constitution and international law.
"Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government of Ukraine," President Barack Obama said at the White House. "In 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders."
President Barack Obama delivers a statement on the situation in Ukraine at the White House Thursday. REUTERS
A Russian move to absorb Crimea against the will of Ukraine's national government in Kiev would mark the first time since World War II that such a maneuver had been attempted in Europe.
"This is an illegitimate decision. This so-called referendum has no legal grounds at all," said Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who was in Brussels meeting with European leaders working to forge a response. "Crimea was, is, and will be an integral part of Ukraine."
Shortly after the Crimean legislature's decision, the White House imposed visa restrictions and laid the groundwork for potential sanctions on those who have worked to destabilize Ukraine.
At an emergency European Union summit in Brussels, leaders said that if Russia doesn't begin negotiations with Ukraine within days and quickly produce results, the bloc would follow through with its own sanctions on Moscow, including travel bans and asset freezes.
"These last days have seen perhaps the most serious challenge to security on our continent since the Balkan wars," said Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, who chaired the summit. "We strongly condemn Russia's unprovoked violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Crimea has been under de facto military occupation since Feb. 27, when thousands of heavily armed men seized key locations on the peninsula and effectively cut it off from the rest of Ukraine. The men were wearing unmarked uniforms but were widely believed to be Russian soldiers, many from Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
The gunmen took over the parliament and presided over the installation of a new pro-Russian governor for the region, who then announced a referendum would be held on the more vaguely described issue of increased autonomy from Kiev.
It was initially set for May 25, the same day Kiev's new government has set to pick the country's next president, but later moved forward to March 30, but now moved to March 16.
Crimea's parliament said the decision to hold a referendum was "the result of the unconstitutional coup" that put a new government in place in Kiev last month and the "flagrant violation of the laws of Ukraine" by nationalist forces since the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Local residents hold a Soviet flag as members of the Cossack militia guard the parliament building in Simferopol, the Crimean region's capital. Associated Press
Moscow has welcomed the new Crimean government's appeal for military and financial assistance and supported the new governor, while refusing to recognize the new government in Kiev.
The referendum announcement sent Russian shares down, and in afternoon trading Moscow's Micex index was 2.4% lower, while the RTS index was down 3.2%.
Shortly after announcing the referendum, Crimea's parliament voted separately in favor of joining Russia, but lawmakers said the final decision will rest with the people. The government also directed an appeal to Mr. Putin, asking if Russia would be prepared to absorb Crimea.
Earlier this week, Mr. Putin said Russia wasn't looking to annex Crimea and said that "only the citizens themselves can determine their own future." On Thursday, the Kremlin said Mr. Putin had discussed the possibility of Crimea becoming part of Russia during a meeting of his security council.
In Moscow, the Russian parliament was preparing to move up consideration of a draft law that would ease the annexation of new territories to Russia and officials said it could be passed in time for the referendum.
The U.S. is initiating military drills in European countries around Russia and Ukraine. Jerry Seib explains that this show of force is not to intimidate the Russian government but rather to encourage European nations afraid of Russian invasion.
"This issue may be resolved within a very short time, like three to five days," Anatoly Lyskov, a member of the Russia's Federation Council's constitutional legislation and judicial issues committee, told the Interfax new agency.
In a televised address in Kiev, acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov called the referendum "a farce and a crime against the state, organized by Russia." He said that lawmakers in Kiev would begin the procedure of dissolving the regional legislature in Simferopol. It wasn't clear how those decisions would be enforced however, since the Crimean government no longer recognizes Kiev's authority.
Russia's occupation of Crimea is building on non-military tracks. Plus, the EU said it would make at least $15 billion in grants and loans available for Ukraine. Photo: AP.
Russian President Vladimir Putin comments on the situation in Ukraine during a presser at the Novo- Ogaryovo presidential residence outside Moscow on Tuesday. Photo: Associated Press
The March 16 vote will ask voters whether they support "reunification with Russia" or if they agree to remain within Ukraine, keeping the substantial autonomy from the central government that the predominantly Russian-speaking region has had since 1992.
The parliament said that the decision will be made by a simple majority of voters.
Sergei Tsekov, a legislator from Crimea's Russian Unity party, said the parliamentary vote was taken in a closed session and about three-quarters of the representatives voted to join Russia. Asked why the session was closed, he said: "There was no need for observers because we're all honest people in there."
Mr. Tsekov, who is a member of the Russian Unity party in Crimea, said Ukraine "got a present when it was given Crimea" in 1954 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. "It wasn't a present that anyone had the right to give. If we call things by their name," he said, "then we should say it was Ukraine that annexed Crimea. I'm sure the population will applaud the decision that we made today to return to our brethren in Russia."
Outside the parliament, about 200 demonstrators waved Russian flags after the vote. In the past week, Crimea's parliament has debated changing the region's time zone to Moscow time and adopting the Russian ruble if Crimea opts to secede.
"I'm for Russia because of one thing: Putin," said Nataliya Arbatova, a retired nurse who was born in Russia and moved to Crimea for her job in the 1970s. "He's strong and can put our lives back in order."
Other residents, however, reacted with shock and dismay, as the magnitude of the consequences sunk in.
"This is a farce. Who are these people to decide the course of my life and my children's lives? It's a scenario playing out like an African dictatorship," said Oleg Ilushkin, a Russian-speaking father of two. He was born in Russia's Donbas region and lived in Crimea for 35 years as an engineer for the state railroad.
The high commissioner on national minorities for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Astrid Thors, said in Kiev that there were concerns about whether a legitimate vote could be held given the time frame and the large presence of military personnel on the peninsula.
An observer group from the OSCE was blocked from entering Crimea Thursday, the organization said. "We have concerns and are not sure there will be an expression of free will," she said.
—Naftali Bendavid and Carol E. Lee contributed to this article.
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As Russian troops remain in control of Crimea, a security delegation cuts its trip short, citing safety concerns. Nathan Frandino reports.
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Observers cut Crimea visit short, amid security concerns
As Russian troops remain in control of Crimea, a security delegation cuts its trip short, citing safety concerns. Nathan Frandino reports.
Reuters
07 Mar 2014
UKRAINIAN military in Crimea appear to be abandoning their bases after their own local government declared them enemy combatants and warned them to surrender now and leave the region.
In the space of an afternoon, they had become the enemy at their own gate.
In an extraordinary development to the crisis now politically engulfing most of Europe, troops at some barracks across the Crimea were heeding the warning and walking out of barracks through blockades of Russian troops and laughing local “self defence” units.
The move came after the declaration from their own people that they were now considered “occupiers”, delivered by the Crimea Deputy Prime minister Rustam Temirgaliev.
He went further and said they could switch sides and don Russian military uniforms and take Russian citizenship, or just surrender and leave the “Russian state”.
“If they do not agree, we are prepared to offer them safe passage from the territory of Crimea to their Ukrainian homeland,” he said.
Crisis...A Ukrainian border guard stands at the international Goptovka border check-point "Goptovka" in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian military are abandoning bases after being declared enemy combatants in Crimea. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
The move has caused significant concern on the streets for outright war, a fear supported by a threat from Kiev that it was now supporting a military response to the escalation of the crisis.
Mr Temirgaliev’s words came after the Crimean Parliament also voted unanimously in favour of the autonomous Ukrainian state becoming part of Russia.
A formal referendum to break away from Ukraine will be put to the region’s two million inhabitants, the majority of whom speak Russian, on March 16.
US President Barack Obama said the referendum would violate Ukraine’s constitution and international law.
Mr Obama spoke hours after the United States imposed visa bans on certain senior Russian officials and moved towards wider sanctions against individuals and entities in Moscow, to punish the Kremlin’s incursion into Ukraine.
“The proposed referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the Ukrainian constitution and violate international law,’’ Mr Obama told reporters at the White House.
“Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government of Ukraine,’’ Mr Obama said.
“In 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.”
Crimea’s parliament has already said all citizens would become Russian citizens and the region would adopt the Russian rouble currency. Around 80 per cent of the population is expected to vote in favour of joining Russia.
The interim government in Ukraine capital Kiev has declared the referendum illegal as well as the vote and launched a criminal investigation against the region’s Prime Minister Sergei Askyonov.
That came after both the US and EU leaders said Russia would face sanctions over its military incursion unless it withdrew its troops and engaged in talks with the interim government in capital Kiev.
Germany and some countries bordering Russia said however there were many diplomatic avenues to pursue before that ultimatum came to pass.
Divided...People waving Russian flags cheer after the Sevastopol regional council votes to support Crimea’s plan to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
To raise tensions further, the United States confirmed its guided missile destroyer USS Truxton would today depart Greece for naval operations in the Black Sea for routine and preplanned exercise with allies Bulgaria and Romania.
The exercise may have been preplanned but it is a symbolic act of defiance to match that of the Kremlin which used its preplanned exercises to softly invade Ukraine’s south.
The Russian fleet is already in the Black Sea where it has blocked the entrance to the harbour of Sevastopol, preventing the Ukrainian fleet from leaving.
Instead, authorities have demanded they hand over their personal weapons – which they have – and surrender, which they so far have refused to do.
Fresh appeals today by NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen for Russia to pull its forces out were being roundly ignored.
“This crisis has serious implications for the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole.
“We clearly face the gravest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Mr Rasmussen said.
Today a confused picture exists within the Ukrainian military with Russian troops leaving some Ukrainian bases but apparently bolstering others.
When News Corp went to a Russian encampment at the foothills of Perevalnoye, south of Crimea’s capital Simferopol, Russian troops were erecting tents and field kitchens and its parked convoy of troop-carrying trucks and armoured personnel vehicles had visibly increased from previous days.
Some Ukrainian forces were seen to leave the barracks, some in uniform, a larger number in civilian clothes, as wives and girlfriends appealed to Russian forces and local self defence units to let them visit loved ones inside. They were refused.
Not happy...A child cries as a Russian Cossack places a traditional Cossack hat on her outside of the Simferopol parliament building, which they surrounded in a show of support for Russia. Picture: GettySource: Getty Images
A group of Orthodox priests armed with crucifixes also attempted to enter a golden domed church adjoining the barracks but were refused in lengthy heated exchanges.
“All we want to do is pray in the church but they said such an act of going into the church would be provocative,” Father Alexander told News Corporation.
“How can prayer be provocative and me a provocateur. A friend’s son, also a priest is in there and we want to pray with him. We were also at the Maidan (independence Sq) in Kiev two weeks ago praying for all sides.”
The group of priests had travelled 800km from the Poltava region to the camp.
There were many heated exchanges between the so called local “self defence” unit, a menacing group of local men, and others appealing for them to remember that Ukraine was “glorious” and to not follow Russia.
At Sevastopol naval headquarters, Russian troops also appeared to have been diminished with gates now largely guarded by other local defence units.
“In our house we do not want to destroy each other, we are here for peace not war,” Russian-born local Alexander said.
“May these days have sunshine, may these days have the love of mummy and may these days have me and everyone happy.”
In Crimea’s north-west at Yevpatoriya, Ukrainian forces had again raised their flags over their bases including high above fortified radar installations which was heavily guarded by dozens of Ukrainian forces with a large military vehicle blocking the entry gates.
Down the road at another naval base a Russian flag was flying but the gates were not manned. At the missile defence base of Cape Fiolent its Ukrainian deputy commander Yevgenii Pukhkiy described how the heavily armed Russian troops, who he conceded how better weaponry than his own men, had been there for days but left yesterday in the middle of the night.
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Putin seeks fast track Crimea annexation to exploit turmoil
By Stuart Williams (AFP) – 1 hour ago
Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to profit to the maximum from Ukraine's turmoil by implementing the de-facto annexation of Crimea at high speed to wrong foot an indecisive West, analysts said.
The ousting of the generally pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was a major defeat for Putin and means that the ex-Soviet state is now swiftly aligning itself with the European Union in a historic switch away from the Kremlin.
But with Ukraine in chaos under its new pro-Western authorities, Putin is moving to seize Crimea, a region that most Russians believe only ended up in post-USSR Ukraine because of a catastrophic mistake by Nikita Khrushchev to make it part of the Soviet republic of Ukraine.
The Crimean parliament said Thursday it was asking Putin if Crimea could become part of Russia and would put the issue to the people in a hastily brought forward referendum on March 16.
Russia's parliament is meanwhile already preparing a bill to ease the process for incorporating part of a foreign state into Russia.
While the initial move has come from the Crimean parliament, few doubt this is a plan by Putin drawn up at breathtaking speed so that Russia can gain some historical profit from the Ukraine crisis.
It is move entirely in character for a strongman leader who famously declared the collapse of the Soviet Union to be the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the twentieth century.
The swoop is unlikely to meet with much opposition in Russian society which remains a hotbed of patriotism and often nostalgic for the projection of Moscow power seen in the Soviet era.
- What is Putin's aim? -
Putin -- who has always sought to promote Russia's status as a great power in any situation like the Syria conflict -- wants to show the West that the Kremlin will not leave events like the Ukraine uprising without reaction.
"Putin has decided to show that he does not fear the West or sanctions. He has decided to put the West in front of a fait accompli to show his decisiveness," said leading Russian defence commentator Pavel Felgenhauer.
"Putin cannot and does not want to take a step backwards, especially as the propaganda campaign in Russia has been ratcheted up so much."
Alexei Makarkin of the Centre for Political Technology in Moscow said: "The situation is changing fast ?- what yesterday seemed unthinkable now becomes reality."
- How far will Putin go? -
A big question is whether Russia limits itself to just Crimea or also makes a move on eastern Ukraine, which also has Russian-speakers who consider themselves loyal to the Kremlin.
"He is saying that Crimea is ours. Russia is not going to enter the territory of the rest of Ukraine, in as much as Crimea is going to become Russian territory," Makarkin said.
"He is saying give us Crimea and we will not touch the rest. It's not going to work (annexing) the east, it would be too dangerous."
But Nikolai Petrov, professor at the Higher School of Economics, said the idea of moving into the east of Ukraine was still very much on the table.
"Putin wants to consolidate his success and set out the positions for negotiations ?- guaranteed inclusion of Crimea into Russia and control over eastern Ukraine."
- What are the risks? -
Russia faces unprecedented post-Cold War isolation, sanctions as well as risks to its already fragile economy, with the ruble slumping again on Thursday.
Traditional alliances may be endangered. China, worried about separatism in the Xinjiang region, may not be impressed by such radical moves. Kazakhstan will fret about being lumped with Russia in a Customs Union at such dangerous times.
"Russia is going to be in isolation at the UN. Ukraine will not acknowledge the annexation of Crimea and it is possible relations will be cut off," said Makarkin.
Meanwhile Felgenhauer said Russia's annexation of Crimea may not prove to be the walk in the park that Russia appears to expect, especially with Crimea's Tatar population traditionally loyal to Kiev and hostile to Russian domination.
"A partisan war could start in Crimea," he said.
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