UKRAINE CRISIS
ALEXANDER KHUDOTEPLY / AFP - GETTY IMAGESCrisis in Crimea: A Guide to Major Players
BY ERIN MCCLAM
The crisis in Ukraine, which began as a dispute over whether the country should accept financial help from Europe or Russia, spiraled into the ouster of a president and then the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
Russia insists it’s only protecting Russian speakers in Ukraine. The United States has demanded a pullback and imposed sanctions. And diplomats have met repeatedly to talk it out.
But the Crimean regional government deepened the drama this week by ordering a vote on whether the peninsula should stay part of Ukraine or become part of Russia.
Here’s a look at the major players in the crisis.
The West
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Barack Obama, president of the United States. He has demanded that Russia pull its troops back to their barracks in Crimea and allow international monitors there, and has also imposed limited sanctions on Russians. “In 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders,” he said this week.
John Kerry, U.S. secretary of state. He’s raced around the world this week meeting with other diplomats and trying to talk Russia into holding one-on-one talks with Ukraine. So far he has found little success, but he says the parties have indicated they’re willing to the resolve the crisis — somehow, at some point — through talking, not force.
Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany and possible key to a solution. She appears to have a warmer relationship with Putin than Obama does, and Germany depends heavily on Russia for energy. She’s pushed Putin toward a negotiated solution — though some analysts say she doesn’t stand much more chance than anyone else of persuading him.
The Russians
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Vladimir Putin, president of Russia and thorn in the side of the West. He insists he moved into Ukraine to protect the interests of ethnic Russians there, a charge Western analysts say is laughable, and said he reserves the right to use further force, though he called it a last resort. He says the ouster of Yanukovych was an illegitimate coup.
Sergey Lavrov, foreign minister of Russia and Putin’s top negotiator with the West. He met with Kerry three times this week, but he refused to meet with his counterpart from Ukraine. The negotiations took a step back Friday when Lavrov was quoted calling the U.S. sanctions “hasty and reckless” and saying they would “boomerang.”
The Ukrainians
AFP - GETTY, GETTY, EPAIn exile
Viktor Yanukovych, ousted president. He fled to Russia last month after angry protesters chased him out of Kiev. Crowds later descended on his opulent estate, complete with golf course and presidential sauna. Yanukovych held a news conference from Russia last week and vowed a comeback, but analysts say he’s probably finished.
In Kiev
Oleksandr Turchynov, former speaker of Parliament and acting president. He was named to the job the day after Yanukovych was run out of town. He has dismissed the planned referendum in Crimea as “a farce, a fake, a crime.” He was swept into office as a reformer, but analysts say he has little latitude to make policy.
Arseny Yatsenyuk, acting prime minister and former anti-Yanukovych firebrand. He is considered a technocrat who lacks charisma and probably won’t win the presidential election in May. He vowed in Brussels on Friday: “No one will give up Crimea to anyone.”
Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister and opposition hero. She was freed from jail during the protests in Kiev and delivered a dramatic rallying cry from her wheelchair to cheering crowds there. She leads the Fatherland party, which also includes Turchynov and Yatsenyuk, and could be the next president.
Vitali Klitschko, former heavyweight boxing champion and opposition leader. He’s 6 feet 7 inches tall and known as Dr. Ironfist for both his prowess in the ring and his Ph.D. He has kept a relatively low profile since the invasion of Crimea but is also considered a contender in the May presidential election.
In Crimea
Sergei Aksyonov, hastily named prime minister of the region after armed men seized government buildings. He heads Russian Unity, a pro-Moscow party in Crimea, where ethnic Russians make up 60 percent of the population. He has directly appealed to Putin for help protecting the “Crimean Autonomous Republic.”
The pro-Russia mobs, which have roiled Crimea. Militia trapped a United Nations envoy in a coffee shop in the city of Simferopol until he agreed to leave Crimea. And pro-Moscow demonstrators seized a government building in the critical eastern city of Donetsk and held it for three days before police retook the building.
The Tatars, the minority Muslims indigenous to Crimea. They were brutally ordered out of the peninsula under Stalin after World War II and only allowed to return in the 1980s. They are deeply suspicious of Russia and want the peninsula to remain under Ukrainian control.
UKRAINE CRISIS
Orthodox Christian Leaders Call for Peaceful End to Ukraine Crisis
ISTANBUL — Patriarchs of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians ended a rare summit in Istanbul on Sunday calling for a peaceful end to the crisis in Ukraine and denouncing violence driving Christians out of the Middle East.
Twelve heads of autonomous Orthodox churches, the second-largest family of Christian churches, also agreed to hold a summit of bishops, or ecumenical council, in 2016, which will be the first in over 1,200 years.
The Istanbul talks were called to decide on the council, which the Orthodox have been preparing on and off since the 1960s, but the Ukraine crisis overshadowed their talks at the office of spiritual leader Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
As the prelates left a special service at Saint George's Cathedral, a woman in the crowd called out in Russian "Pray for Ukraine!" Two archbishops responded: "You pray, too!"
In their communiqué, the patriarchs called for "peaceful negotiations and prayerful reconciliation in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine" and denounced what they said were "threats of violent occupation of sacred monasteries and churches" there.
MURAD SEZER / REUTERS
The Russian Orthodox Church, with 165 million members by far the largest in the Orthodox family, last month issued a statement along with Moscow's Foreign Ministry about what they said were attacks on revered historic monasteries in Kiev and Pochayiv in western Ukraine.
Russia has used the alleged threat to Russian-speakers in Ukraine, including the faithful of the Moscow-backed church there, to argue it has the right to intervene to protect them.
Closely aligned with President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine policy, the Russian church has a partner Ukrainian Orthodox Church mostly in the Russian-speaking east of the country that is loyal to the Moscow patriarchate.
There are two rival Orthodox churches mostly in western Ukraine, both meant to be Ukrainian national churches. Neither is part of the global Orthodox communion and the patriarchs' communiqué expressed the hope they would one day join it.
—Reuters
Blinken: Russia Facing 'Greater Isolation'
MEET THE PRESS
UKRAINE CRISIS
Putin Defends Crimea's Move to Hold Referendum
MOSCOW/BERLIN — Russian President Vladimir Putin defended breakaway moves by the pro-Russian leaders of Crimea on Sunday in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to the Kremlin.
The three leaders spoke amid tensions on the Black Sea peninsula since the Moscow-backed regional parliament declared the Ukrainian region part of Russia and announced a March 16 referendum to confirm this.
"Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin underlined in particular that the steps taken by Crimea's legitimate authorities are based on international law and aimed at guaranteeing the legitimate interests of the peninsula's population," the Kremlin said.
"The Russian president also drew the attention of his interlocutors to the lack of any action by the present authorities in Kiev to limit the rampant behavior of ultra-nationalists and radical forces in the capital and in many regions," it added in a written statement.
Merkel, however, told Putin the referendum violated Ukraine's constitution and was against international law, a statement from the German government said.
German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told German public broadcaster ARD that as the referendum was "against international law," it would be difficult to prevent boycott measures or economic sanctions.
"It's no secret we Germans and the government don't want this, because we know there will ultimately be no winners, but Europe cannot just stand by and watch," he said.
Putin has said that Ukraine's new leaders seized power in an armed coup and that Russia has the right to invade Ukraine to protect Russians living in the former Soviet republic.
Russian officials have been increasingly portraying Kiev's leadership as radical nationalists backed by the West, but the European Union and the U.S. have condemned Moscow's move as interfering with Ukrainian territorial integrity.
— Reuters
UKRAINE CRISIS
Republicans Heighten Criticism of Obama's Ukraine Response
Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Sunday of appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin and said there's "no question" that Putin "believes he is weak."
Cheney said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation" that Obama and his advisers "have created an image around the world, not just to the Russians, of weakness. ... The Syrian situation is a classic. We got all ready to do something — a lot of the allies signed on — and at the last minute, Obama backed off."
Cheney said that in responding to Russia's seizure of Crimea, "there are military options that don't involve putting troops on the ground in Crimea. We could go back and reinstate the ballistic-missile defense program that was taken out, that was originally going to go in Poland (and) the Czech Republic, and Obama took it out to appease Putin."
He also suggested that Obama offer military equipment and training to the Ukrainians and do joint training exercises in Poland.
Cheney did admit that the Bush administration's responses to the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia "were not effective in terms of driving Putin out." Some observers see Putin's successful invasion of Georgia as the template for Russian actions in Crimea.
Cheney's comments came as Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary under both President George W. Bush and Obama, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Putin's seizure of Crimea appeared to be irreversible. "I do not believe that Crimea will slip out of Russia's hand," he said.
More Republican criticism of Obama's handling of the Ukraine crisis came from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a potential Republican presidential contender. In an interview on ABC's "This Week," Cruz said Obama's foreign policy was "to alienate and abandon our friends and to coddle and appease our enemies. You better believe that Putin sees in Benghazi four Americans are murdered and nothing happens, there's no retribution. You better believe that Putin sees in Syria (that) Obama draws a red line and ignores a red line."
Also commenting on the Ukraine crisis, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., another potential 2016 presidential contender, said on "Fox News Sunday" that if Putin "creates a Syria out of Ukraine, what's going to happen is 80 percent of his oil and gas is going through Ukraine. It will be a disaster for him."
Paul said he would "immediately get every obstacle out of the way for our export of oil and gas, and I would begin drilling in every possible conceivable place within our territories in order to have production that we could supply Europe with if it's interrupted from Ukraine."
Defending a comment in which he'd said the U.S. ought to have "a respectful — sometimes adversarial but a respectful — relationship with Russia," Paul said Obama "hasn't projected enough strength and hasn't shown a priority to the national defense. That is something that were I in charge I would."
What Lies Ahead in Ukraine Crisis?
MEET THE PRESS
UKRAINE CRISIS
MEET THE PRESSTony Blinken, deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, talks about the White House's ratcheting up pressure over Ukraine.
UKRAINE CRISIS
MEET THE PRESSRep. Peter King of New York suggests that strict sanctions on Russian oligarchs are an important step in addressing the crisis in the Ukraine and discusses the possibility of terrorism in the case of the missing Malaysian flight.
UKRAINE CRISIS
Obama Aide Sees Russian Threat on Arms Inspections As 'Serious'
Tony Blinken, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Sunday that a Russian threat to cease inspections of nuclear weapons as required by U.S.-Russian arms control treaties would be "a serious development."
Blinken said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he'd seen news reports of those Russian threats — made in response to U.S. sanctions and other penalties for Russia's seizure of the Crimea region of Ukraine — but that the Russian government had not communicated directly to the Obama administration on that matter.
Asked what Obama had accomplished so far in his efforts to deter or penalize Putin, Blinken said the president has been "mobilizing the international community in support of Ukraine to isolate Russia for its actions in Ukraine and to reassure our allies and partners."
Blinken said Obama has invited Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk to the White House on Wednesday to consult with him and to demonstrate U.S. support.
Blinked argued that the decline in value of the Russian ruble and the increased uncertainty about foreign investment in Russia are "exacting a real cost and a real consequence" for Putin's decision to intervene in Crimea.
Russian parliamentary leaders signaled Friday that Russia is prepared to annex Crimea.
A referendum will be held in Crimea on March 16 to decide whether the region should join Russia or remain part of Ukraine. But Blinken said if the result of the referendum is that Crimea joins Russia, then "we won't recognize it, and most of the world won't, either."
UKRAINE CRISIS
Russian Forces Seize Crimean Border Guard Post
KIEV — Russian forces took control of a Ukrainian border guard post in western Crimea on Sunday, trapping about 30 personnel inside, a border guard spokesman said.
He said by telephone that the Chernomorskoye base on the western edge of the Back Sea peninsula had been taken over without bloodshed at around 6 a.m.
The spokesman, Oleh Slobodyan, said Russian forces now controlled 11 border guard posts in Crimea.
Russian forces' seizure of the southern Ukrainian region, which began 11 days ago, has been bloodless. Ukrainian troops are trapped in a number of bases but have offered no armed resistance.
UKRAINE CRISIS
Ukraine PM Says He Will Come to U.S. to Discuss Crisis
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Sunday he would go to the U.S. this week to discuss the standoff with Russia over Ukraine's southern region of Crimea.
"I am going to the United states to hold top-level meetings on resolving the situation unfolding in our bilateral and multilateral relations," Yatseniuk said at the start of a government meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
Staff at the prime minister's office confirmed to NBC News that Yatsenyuk plans to travel Wednesday.
President Barack Obama and Yatseniuk will "discuss how to find a peaceful resolution to Russia's ongoing military intervention in Crimea that would respect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said in a statement.
The leaders will also discuss ways in which the international community can support Ukraine amid economic challenges, the White House said.
UKRAINE CRISIS
Klitschko: 'We are Ready to Defend Ukraine from Invasion'
Ukraine is ready to ward off military invasion by Russia but must avoid "military aggression," Ukrainian politician and presidential candidate Vitali Klitschko said during a news conference in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Sunday.
On Thursday, the former heavyweight boxing champ with a Ph.D said Russia's Vladimir Putin was worried about what happens in Ukraine because it “would be a dangerous example to Russia” if people had European standards of life, told business news channel CNBC.
“He is worried about what happens to the country,” he said. “The people don’t want to live with the corruption, without human rights and that’s why people want changes.”
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