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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.
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.
Former Kremlin adviser talks Crimea
Former Kremlin Adviser Alexander Nekrassov speaks with CNN's Christiane Amanpour about Ukraine.
Click above to watch.
U.S. Senator who met with Yatsenyuk
Christiane Amanpour speaks with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy about Ukraine and his meeting with interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Clik above to watch.
Madeleine Albright: Diplomacy still possible in Ukraine, if Putin wants solution
By Mick Krever, CNN
A diplomatic solution to the standoff over Crimea is still possible, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“There is a solution,” she said. “There could be more autonomy for Crimea. The question is whether [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants a solution. He may like this kind of disarray, because it's kind of in everybody's face.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talked on the phone Tuesday about their respective countries' ideas about resolving the Ukrainian crisis, a day after Lavrov announced that Kerry had postponed a face-to-face meeting with Putin, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“There are moments where you think, ‘Why can't we get this together,’” Albright told Amanpour. “The bottom line is, scoring points is not what it's about.”
There is a solution, she said, in which the country has a relationship with both Russia and the United States.
“What I think is a tragedy is that Putin is providing a zero-sum game. And it doesn't have to be.”
Crimea will hold a referendum Sunday on whether the peninsula should become a part of Russia or remain within Ukraine.
The interim Ukrainian government – and foreign leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama – have called that initiative illegal.
Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, will discuss legislation on March 21 on Crimea joining the nation, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.
Could Crimea’s fate be a “fait accompli,” Amanpour asked.
“I suppose it is possible that it could be a fait accompli,” Albright said.
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