Follow Christiane on social media:
What time is Amanpour on CNN?
Check showtimes to see when Amanpour is on CNN where you are. Or watch online.
Russia could invade Ukraine 12 hours after order, says NATO commander
By Mick Krever, CNN
Russian troops could invade Ukraine within 12 hours of getting an order, General Philip Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday.
“It’s my opinion that they could move within 12 hours of a go,” General Breedlove said from NATO headquarters in Brussels. “So essentially they could move right away if given the go.”
NATO military chief's warning
CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaks with General Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO.
General Breedlove said that there are now 40,000 Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s eastern border.
But even that number, he said, doesn’t tell the full story.
“This is a combined-arms army, with all of the pieces necessary should there be a choice to make an incursion into Ukraine,” he said.
Forces are “supported by fixed-wing aircraft [airplanes], rotary aircraft [helicopters] – all of the logistics required in order to successfully make an incursion if they needed.”
Crimean minority Tatar leader warns of possible bloodshed
By Mick Krever, CNN
The leader of Crimea’s Muslim minority, the Tatars, warned on Monday of possible bloodshed in Crimea and southern Ukraine.
“Our largest, biggest concern is about the possibility of clashes, of large scale bloodshed in Crimea,” Mustafa Dzhemilev, who is a member of Ukraine’s parliament, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview.
The Ukrainian military will fight, despite an imbalance in power, if the Russian military goes further into Ukraine, Dzhemilev said.
“No matter how weak we are in military in comparison to Russia…we’ll start fire.”
Tatar leader warns of possible bloodshed
Ukrainian Member of Parliament Mustafa Dzhemilev warns of possible future bloodshed in Crimea and Ukraine.
“We’ll open fire if [the Russian] Army will move further. And it’s hardly within Russia’s interests or President Putin’s interests, but we can’t exclude anything.”
“But all this will result in bloodshed.”
Web extra: Despite Putin claim, Kosovo bears ‘no resemblance’ to case of Crimea, says former U.S. diplomat
By Mick Krever, CNN
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week cited the “well-known Kosovo precedent” in justifying his country’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Strobe Talbott, who served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State during the Kosovo conflict, under U.S. President Bill Clinton, called that analogy “bizarre.”
“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Tablott said.
“Kosovo, remember, was a Muslim-dominated part … of Serbia, where the central government – dominated by the Serbs – were carrying out acts of virtually genocide. They were certainly doing ethnic cleansing, they were massacring people.”
“And it was a result of that there was an international invention, an armed intervention, to stop the killing.”
It was only years later peace was brokered – brokered with the assistance of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Talbott said – that Kosovo gained independence from Serbia.
“It bears no resemblance whatsoever to the case of Crimea and Ukraine.”
Russian standoff in ‘11th hour,’ says first post-Soviet Russian foreign minister
By Mick Krever, CNN
The standoff between Russia, Ukraine, and the West has reached the “eleventh hour,” Andrei Kozyrev, the first post-Soviet Russian foreign minister, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“The [stakes are] still very, very high,” he said. “Let me just remind whoever concerned that Russia is still [a] nuclear superpower. So the [stakes] might be life and death. And maybe sooner than somebody is thinking.”
“It’s [the] eleventh hour for Russians, and for anybody else, to reconsider.”
A week after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, there is still considerable concern and uncertainty about what Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next move might be.
Russian military forces are massed along Ukraine’s eastern border. NATO’s top military official called them “very, very sizable and very, very ready.”
Ready for what exactly is not clear.
“We can only guess what actually happens next,” Kozyrev said. “It’s very much an impromptu kind of show.”
Crimea is just Putin’s ‘opening game,’ says Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt
By Mick Krever, CNN
Russia’s annexation of Crimea could be just the first move in President Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical chess match with Ukraine, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“I think that Crimea is the opening game,” he said. “It is not that President Putin is primarily interested in Crimea. He is interested in Ukraine.”
“If you read carefully what President Putin said in his big speech in the Kremlin the day before yesterday, what he says there about sort of historical claims and those sorts of things, apply not only to Crimea but also to southern parts of Ukraine.”
“That is where we should be extremely alert at the risk of President Putin moving further, even militarily, beyond Crimea.”
Bildt: Putin's agenda is Kiev, not Crimea
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt tells Amanpour he believes President Putin is playing a "long game" for Ukraine.
And in terms of his play for influence in Ukraine, Bildt thinks Putin’s goals know few bounds.
“I’m pretty convinced that his real agenda is not Crimea, but Kiev.”
“I think he is prepared to use both economic measures, subversion, destabilizing issues, [and] economic issues – but at the end of the day what we have seen during the last few weeks is that he is also prepared to use military instruments. And that is what is scary and what is deeply worrying.”
It may not happen immediately, Bildt said, but Putin is “prepared to play this long.”
Ukraine on brink of ‘very dangerous conflict,’ warns Ukrainian member of parliament
By Mick Krever, CNN
Ukraine is at the beginning of a “very dangerous conflict,” Ukrainian member of parliament and former foreign minister Petro Poroshenko told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“Several weeks ago we had a guarantee that nothing [would] happen with the Crimea. Several weeks ago we had [a situation] that there is not any military presence on Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea.”
A Ukrainian officer was killed at a Crimean military base on Tuesday, and a second person injured, by armed men in masks.
Ukraine’s armed forces then announced that it had authorized units stationed in Crimea to use weapons “to protect and preserve the life of Ukrainian soldiers.”
Ukraine on edge of 'dangerous conflict'
Ukrainian member of parliament Petro Poroshenko tells Christiane Amanpour he fears conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“We have a feeling that we are at the beginning of a very dangerous conflict. And we should do our best to stop this process.”
The Kremlin now says that Ukraine’s Crimea region is part of Russia, and President Vladimir Putin signed a draft annexation agreement on Tuesday, which still needs the Duma’s rubber stamp.
Russian billionaire says West is ‘in love’ with ‘Russian dirty money’
By Mick Krever, CNN
Western sanctions on Russia will not hurt, because “the Western side” is “a bit in love with certain spheres of the Russian dirty money,” Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“And secondly,” he said, “I don't think any restrictions of travel for any members of the parliament or Russian Federation, are really anything of substance.”
Nonetheless, he admitted that if a “Cold War economic sphere” set in, punitive measures could have an effect.
“Russia will have to pay a price with prices going up because we're too dependent on imports and exports,” he said.
Europe and the United States imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 28 Russian and Ukrainian officials on Monday over their involvement in a Crimean referendum to join Russia, a vote Western officials called illegal.
Lebedev, a former KGB agent turned businessman and Kremlin-critic, was not on the sanctions list. He now runs four British newspapers, including The Independent and the Evening Standard.
Germany says it could live without Russian gas
By Mick Krever, CNN
Germany could live without its Russian gas supply if necessary, Philipp Missfelder, foreign policy spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling political coalition, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“If the Russians would stop the gas supply for us, or we would raise sanctions on the oil and gas sector, we will be able to have in the interconnected and linked European energy market – of course with higher prices – the energy supply for Germany.”
Germany has a stockpile of coal it could tap, Missfelder said, admitting that such a move would impact the country’s climate change goals.
But “for the political calculation, it’s good to know that we are independent from Russian gas.”
NATO concerned about further Russian intervention
By Mick Krever, CNN
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Monday that he is “concerned about Russian military activities along the borders of Ukraine.”
Amanpour asked Rasmussen if he was worried that Russia may be “stirring up trouble” in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for intervention. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday warned of “continuing provocations” in Eastern Ukraine.
“Absolutely,” Rasmussen said. “That is a possibility, that is a clear risk that would further deteriorate the whole situation.”
NATO worried about more Russia intervention
NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen tells Christiane Amanpour he is concerned about further Russian intervention in Ukraine.
With more than 20,000 Russian soldiers in Crimea, according to the interim Ukrainian government, Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Russia.
Web extra: NATO 'reassesing' relationship with Russia
In this web extra, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen talks with CNN's Christiane Amanpour about NATO's relationship with Russia.
Click above to watch.
@camanpour on Twitter
