The White House reiterated on Sunday that it would not recognise the results of a referendum in Crimea and promised sanctions against Russia within days, as Moscow claimed it was ready to seek a solution to the crisis in Ukraine through constitutional reforms. Russian troops have controlled the southern province for the past fortnight. Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, underlined the White House’s opposition to the referendum as the result was announced on Sunday afternoon – Russian-owned news agencies reported the first exit polls showing a 93% vote in favour of secession – saying in a statement: “We reject the ‘referendum’ that took place today in the Crimean region of Ukraine.” “This referendum is contrary to Ukraine’s constitution, and the international community will not recognise the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention that violates international law.” Describing Russia’s actions as “dangerous and destabilising”, Carney condemned the Kremlin for escalating the crisis by carrying out “threatening military exercises on Ukraine’s eastern border”, and said its actions would result in “increasing costs”. Earlier on Sunday Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, stressed that the US would not be acknowledging the outcome of the vote. “This referendum is in violation of international law,” Pfeiffer told NBC’s Meet the Press. “The United States is not going to recognise the results of that referendum.” Amid pressure on Obama from Republicans to take tougher action against President Vladimir Putin for his actions in Crimea, Pfeiffer declined to rule out American direct military aid to Kiev, saying only that the US was considering “all ways of assistance” in light of the Russian military occupation. The Republican senator John McCain said on Saturday during a visit to Ukraine by a bipartisan group of eight senators that the country required a “long-term military assistance programme from the United States” comprising “lethal and nonlethal” equipment to enable resistance against Russian forces. Pfeiffer said senior Russians should prepare for “sanctions designations in the coming days” from the US, which is poised to introduce asset freezes and visa bans authorised last week by Obama. And he urged Congress to pass an economic aid package for Ukraine, comprising $150m (£90m) along with $1bn in loan guarantees. “We are putting as much pressure on the Russians as we can to do the right thing,” Pfeiffer said. Of Putin, he asked: “Is he going to continue to further isolate himself, further hurt his economy, further diminish Russian influence in the world, or is he going to do the right thing?” State media in Moscow said on Sunday that Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and John Kerry, the US secretary of state, had made progress during a telephone conversation about the crisis. “Lavrov and Kerry agreed to continue contacts in search for a settlement of the situation in Ukraine through an earliest possible launch of constitutional reform, assisted by the world community in a generally acceptable form and with due respect for the interests of all regions of Ukraine,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Voice of Russia. Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, last week said the new government in Kiev was willing to “hold a national dialogue about additional rights and powers” that could be offered to Crimea. However, on Sunday the Russian claims were met with scepticism in Washington. “We’ve seen this movie before: we should be cautious,” Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, told CBS of the Russian read-out of the call, suggesting that the Kremlin may simply be trying to buy time. A senior State Department official told Reuters Kerry had told Lavrov the US would not accept the results of the referendum and “urged Russia to back constitutional reform in Ukraine that would protect the rights of minorities such as Crimea’s Russian-speaking population”. Kerry also said Russia must pull back its forces to their bases and raised strong concerns about Russian military activities in Ukraine’s Kherson oblast on Saturday, as well as continuing provocations in eastern Ukraine, the official said. McCain on Sunday again urged Obama to do more to punish Putin, reiterating his call for military aid and proposing the resumption of a US missile defence system in eastern Europe that was shelved when Obama came into office. “The United States of America has to first of all have a fundamental reassessment of our relationship with Vladimir Putin. No more ‘reset’ button,” McCain told CNN’s State of the Union, referring to Obama’s efforts to begin a clean slate with Moscow at the outset of his first term. Also back from the congressional visit to Ukraine, Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic majority whip, dismissed Sunday’s referendum as “a Soviet-style election” in that “we know what the ending is going to be”. He told Meet the Press that the Russian intervention in Crimea was “the single most serious act of aggression since the cold war”.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 18:41:05 +0000
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