This looks for all the world like damage control. The West has been out-maneouvred by Putin.
Obama lashes out at Russia over Crimea during Brussels speech
Obama lashes out at Russia over Crimea during Brussels speech
United
States President Barack Obama spoke for more than half-an-hour on
Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium, and the biggest part of his speech
was dedicated to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict over the strategic
Crimean peninsula.
RT,
26
March, 2014
The
president, who has spent this week touring Europe to discuss the
situation in Ukraine with America’s NATO partners, evoked two world
wars and other international crises during a 30-minute speech that
culminated in a passionate plea for allied nations to, as Mr. Obama
said, “meet the challenge to our ideals” being presented by the
situation in Crimea.
Pres.
Obama stopped short of saying he was ready to up the ante as a
standoff between Russia and the West continues with regards to the
Crimean peninsula. He did, however, insist that America and its
partners were prepared to together widen sanctions against Russia and
further attempt to remove it from international discussions if that
country continues its involvement in Ukrainian affairs.
“Together
we have isolated Russia politically, suspending it from the G8
nations and downgrading our bilateral ties,” Obama said. “Together
we are imposing costs through sanctions that have left a mark . . .
And if the Russian leadership stays on its current course, together
we will ensure that this isolation deepens.”
The
president’s remarks came ten days after residents in Crimea —
then an autonomous republic in southern Ukraine — overwhelmingly
voted to sever ties and align with Russia. Moscow soon after accepted
the results of that referendum, but the White House remains adamant
that it not be recognized by the West.
Mr.
Obama set the stage for Wednesday’s speech before a predominately
younger crowd at The Center for Fine Arts in the heart of Brussels by
recalling Europe’s vast history where, he said, a now
internationally-accepted set of ideals first emerged “through
centuries of struggles, through war and enlighten, repression and
revolution.”
Those
ideals, he added, include “The belief that through conscious and
free will each of us has the right to live as we chose,” and “The
belief that power is derived from the consent of the governed, and
that laws and institutions should be to protect that understanding.”
“Those
ideals have often been threatened by an older, more traditional view
of power,” Mr. Obama added, before later calling out Russia
specifically for its recent annexation of Crimea.
“Once
again,” he said later, “we are confronted with the belief among
some that bigger nations can bully smaller ones to get their way.
That recycled maxim that might, somehow, makes right. So I come here
today to insist that we must never take for granted the progress that
has been won here in Europe and advanced around the world, because
the contest of ideas continues for your generation, and that’s
what’s at stake in Ukraine today.”
Speaking
of Russia’s handling of Crimea in recent weeks, Obama equated it to
redrawing Europe’s border with force despite those hallowed ideals
ensuring that “people in nations can make their own decisions about
their future.”
The
need to condemn Russia internationally, Obama said, is not
self-serving.
“To
be honest, if we define our interests narrowly, if we applied a cold
hearted calculus, we might decide to look the other way,” he said.
“Our economy is not deeply integrated with Ukraine’s. Our people
and our homeland face no direct threat from the invasion of Crimea.
Our own borders are not threatened by Russia’s annexation. But that
kind of casual indifference would ignore the lessons that are written
in the cemeteries of this continent. It would allow the old way of
doing things to regain a foothold in this young century. And that
message would be heard not just in Europe, but in Asia and the
Americas, in Africa and the Middle East. And the consequences that
would arise from complacency are not abstractions.”
At
the same time, though, the president did not defer allegations that
his own country has acted hypocritically when it comes to Crimea
following decades of US-led military operations overseas. The
president specifically cited the Iraq War, and acknowledged that it
was the subject of vigorous debate both in America and abroad.
“But
even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international
system,” he said. “We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory.
We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead we ended our
war, and left Iraq to it people in a fully sovereign Iraqi state that
can make decision about its own future.”
“Of
course, neither the US nor Europe are perfect in adherence to our
ideals, nor do we claim to be the sole arbiter of what is right or
wrong in the world—we are humans after all, and we face difficult
decisions about how to exercise our power.” The difference, he
decried, as that the US “welcome[s] the responsibilities that come
with global leadership.”
“These
Ukrainians rejected a government that was stealing from the people
instead of serving them, and are reaching for the same ideals that
allow us to be here today,” he added. “None of us know for
certain what the coming days will bring in Ukraine, but I am
confident that eventually those voices — those voices for human
dignity and for opportunity and individual rights and rule of law —
those voices ultimately will triumph.”
The
International Monetary Fund is currently discussing plans that will
reportedly allow Ukraine to receive a substantial bail out of roughly
$15 billion amidst a dire financial situation there only worsened by
the recent turmoil and last month’s ousting of then president
Viktor Yanukovych. On Wednesday, though, Obama said that the interim
Ukrainian government will continue to receive not just financial aid,
but the backing in spirit of the US and its allies.
“Sanctions
will expand and the toll on Russia’s economy as well as its
standing in the world will only increase,” Obama said, if the
Crimea crisis worsens. “And meanwhile the US and our allies will
continue to support the government of Ukraine as they chart a
democratic course.”
“[W]e
live in a world in which our ideals are going to be challenged again
and again by forces that would drag us back into conflict or
corruption. We can’t count on others arise to meet those tests: the
policies of your government, the principles of your European Union,
will make a critical difference in whether or not the international
order that so many generations before you have strived to create
continues to move forward or whether it retreats,” he said.
“That’s
the question we all must answer: What kind of Europe, what kind of
America, what kind of world will we leave behind? And I believe that
if we all hold firm to our principles and are willing to back our
beliefs with courage and resolve, then hope will ultimately overcome
fear, and freedom will continue to triumph over tyranny. Because that
is what forever stirs in the human heart,” he concluded his address
No
Man's Land: Crimean recruits in Ukraine's army caught in split
Troops
loyal to Kiev may be packing up and leaving Crimea - but north of the
new border, young recruits from the peninsula are facing uncertainty.
Their families hear scant news from them and now fear Ukraine won't
let them return home. RT's Paula Slier reports on the arduous wait.
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