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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRussia Sets Tough Conditions For Diplomatic Solution In Crimea
Simon Tisdall
The Guardian, Sunday 30 March 2014 15.59 EDT
Russia set out a series of tough conditions on Sunday night for agreeing a diplomatic solution to the crisis over its annexation of Crimea, demanding that the US and its European partners accept its proposal that ethnic Russian regions of eastern and southern Ukraine be given extensive autonomous powers independent of Kiev.
Emergency talks between Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, and John Kerry, the US secretary of state, got under way at the Russian ambassador's residence in Paris after a day in which tensions over Ukraine deepened appreciably. Neither man made any substantive comment before the talks began. Suggesting it might be a long session, Lavrov told reporters: "Good luck and good night."
The meeting took place against an ominous backdrop of the massing of an estimated 40,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's eastern border and warnings from Nato and the Pentagon that the Russian military activity, ostensibly relating to routine exercises, was abnormal and could be a prelude to an invasion.
General Philip Breedlove, Nato supreme allied commander Europe and the head of the US military's European Command, was ordered back to his post in Brussels during a visit to Washington after Chuck Hagel, the US defence secretary, pointed to "a lack of transparency" from Russia about the troop movements. Unlike Moscow, Washington has said it will not resort to force to resolve the crisis.
The US has called on Russia to disarm irregular forces in Crimea, admit international observers and pull its troops back from the eastern border. But speaking to Russian state television before the talks, Lavrov laid out Moscow's own quite different terms for a deal. Primarily, he said, Russia was seeking a federal solution for Ukraine as part of "deep constitutional reform".
more...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/30/russia-ukraine-john-kerry-sergei-lavrov-paris
dlwickham
(3,316 posts)but they already did!
Igel
(35,317 posts)And it wants the West to grant it this right?
My response would be, "Sir, we will grant you your wish just as soon as you accept that we have the authority to grant Mongolia the right to restructure in any way it would like your constitution or your economy--after all, at one point Russia was Mongolian territory. Otherwise, why do you think you and we own Ukraine and are free to dispose of it as you would the dog that you used for your own pleasure before you wife came home?"
PeteSelman
(1,508 posts)Set the first conditions beyond what you expect to get and compromise back to an acceptable point. It's politics 101.