Putin says he has no interest in the rest of Ukraine but stays defiant on Crimea
Putin says he has no interest in the rest of Ukraine but stays defiant on Crimea
(35 minutes later)
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Russia has no designs on any other parts of Ukraine beyond Crimea. In a speech to a joint session of parliament, which he used to call for the “reunification” of Crimea with Russia, he said that the region has a special role in Russian history that makes it unique.
MOSCOW — Russia officially absorbed Crimea Tuesday afternoon, moments after President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia has no designs on any other parts of Ukraine.
But he also promised that Russia will do what it must to protect the rights of Russians living abroad -- which suggests that he intends to play a role in restive eastern Ukraine, with its large Russian population.
In a speech to a joint session of parliament, which he used to call for the “reunification” of Crimea with Russia, he said that region has a special role in Russian history that makes it unique.
Ecstatic leaders of the Russian and Crimean parliaments signed a treaty of accession as soon as Putin was done, and the Kremlin said afterwards it considers the treaty to be in force even before parliament has ratified it.
Sevastopol, the city where Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet is based, also entered the Russian Federation, as a separate entity.
Even while declaring that Moscow will not seek to expand its holdings in Ukraine, Putin also promised that Russia will do what it must to protect the rights of Russians living abroad -- which suggests that he intends to play a role in restive eastern Ukraine, with its large Russian population.
He said Moscow will always protect the rights of Russians using “political, diplomatic and legal means.”
He said Moscow will always protect the rights of Russians using “political, diplomatic and legal means.”
But he stressed: “Don’t believe those who say Russia will take other regions after Crimea. We don’t need that.”
But he stressed: “Don’t believe those who say Russia will take other regions after Crimea. We don’t need that.”
Putin’s 50-minute speech cataloged 20 years of Russian complaints about the West. He touched on the downfall of the Soviet Union, Kosovo, NATO expansion, Libya, Iraq and Syria. He mentioned Soviet support for the reunification of Germany in 1990. “I hope Germans will support the aspirations of Russians to restore Russia,” he said.
The speech touched off dancing and jubilant cheers in downtown Sevastopol, even as the United States continued diplomatic consultations it says are aimed at reversing Russia’s takeover of Crimea from Ukraine.
Vice President Joe Biden landed in Warsaw on Tuesday morning, where he will confer with Polish and Estonian leaders over the situation. In the evening he intends to fly onward to Lithuania for similar meetings.
One senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the vice president’s plans, said his trip is “first and foremost to reassure our allies that we are deeply concerned about Russia’s action in Ukraine and what the deeper implications might be.”
The adviser said Biden will discuss measures that would be taken “in the days and weeks ahead,” building on financial sanctions imposed on 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials that President Obama announced Monday but that appeared to have little effect on Putin’s calculations.
In Kiev, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk gave a nationally televised address on Tuesday in which — pointedly using the Russian language — he seemed to recognize the limits of the situation. He pledged Ukraine would not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and sought to reassure ethnic Russians and the government in Moscow.
Putin’s 50-minute speech was a catalog of 20 years of Russian complaints about the West. He touched on the downfall of the Soviet Union, Kosovo, NATO expansion, missile defense, Libya, Iraq and Syria. He mentioned Soviet support for the reunification of Germany in 1990. “I hope Germans will support the aspirations of Russians to restore Russia,” he said.
“Our Western partners have crossed a line,” he said. “They’ve been unprofessional.”
“Our Western partners have crossed a line,” he said. “They’ve been unprofessional.”
He said the challenge presented to Russia by the Ukrainian crisis couldn’t be ducked.
He said the challenge presented to Russia by the Ukrainian crisis couldn’t be ducked.
“We have to admit one thing -- Russia is an active participant in international affairs,” he said. “At these critical times we see the maturity of nations, the strength of nations.”
“We have to admit one thing -- Russia is an active participant in international affairs,” he said. “At these critical times we see the maturity of nations, the strength of nations.”
The speech comes as a defiant Russia shows no sign of bending to American or European pressure over the Crimea crisis, which has turned into the sharpest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The speech comes as a defiant Russia shows no sign of bending to American or European pressure over the Crimea crisis, which has turned into the sharpest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The Crimean parliament voted Monday to request “reunification” with the Russian Federation, and Putin officially recognized its independence from Ukraine a few hours later. This was a first step toward formal accession.
Putin traced Russian roots in Crimea to the baptism there of Vladimir, who converted the Russian people to Christianity just over 1,000 years ago. He mentioned that the bones of Soviet soldiers who fought the Germans in World War II are buried all across the peninsula.
Ahead of Putin’s speech, U.S. officials continued diplomatic consultations, and the government in Ukraine took steps to try to calm tensions with their superpower neighbor.
“All these places are sacred to us,” he said. After noting that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev assigned Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, he argued that Russia by rights should have gotten it back in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved.
Vice President Joe Biden landed in Warsaw on Tuesday morning, where he will confer with Polish and Estonian leaders over the situation in Ukraine and Russia’s actions there. In the evening he intends to fly onward to Lithuania for similar meetings.
“Russia was not just robbed -- it was robbed in broad daylight,” he said.
One senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the vice president’s plans, said his trip is “first and foremost to reassure our allies that we are deeply concerned about Russia’s action in Ukraine and what the deeper implications might be.”
In his historical remarks, he also touched on Russians’ roots in Ukraine, in a way that a large number of Ukrainians may not have found to be reassuring. “We sympathize with the people of Ukraine,” he said. “We’re one nation. Kiev is the mother of all Russian cities.”
The adviser said Biden will discuss measures that would be taken “in the days and weeks ahead,” building on financial sanctions imposed on 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials that President Obama announced Monday but that appeared to have little effect on Putin’s calculations.
He described Kiev as a city today where a legitimate protest was overtaken by those plotting a coup, backed by “Western sponsors,” and where government ministers can’t act without first getting permission “from the gunmen on the Maidan” -- a reference to Independence Square. “We have no one to negotiate with,” he said.
In Kiev, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk gave a nationally televised address on Tuesday in which — pointedly using the Russian language — he pledged Ukraine would not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and sought to reassure ethnic Russians and the government in Moscow.
Putin insisted that Russia was acting within international law. He dwelt at some length on Kosovo, which broke free of Serbia in 1999, after NATO intervention, and ultimately declared independence, with international recognition, in 2008.
Yatsenyuk took office after mass demonstrations ousted a pro-Russian government. His quickly developing ties with the U.S. and Europe upset Russian officials and helped prompt a Russian push into Crimea.
He said that precedent gives Western countries no standing to complain about Crimea.
Now, with Crimea apparently on the verge of becoming part of Russia, Yatsenyuk said he knows there are limits.
“You can’t call something black one day, and the same thing white the next,” he said.
“Association with NATO is not on the agenda,” he said, offering the possibility of reforms that would give the country’s regions more power, something Moscow has suggested.“Despite the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine, I will do everything possible not only to keep the peace but also to build a genuine partnership with Russia and good neighbor relations.”
He complained that leaders in the West, led by Americans, “believe they’ve been entrusted by God to decide the fate of other people.”
In Sevastopol, Igor Kifelevich, when he heard that Putin had recognized Crimea’s independence, leapt to his feet and kissed his wife, certain that annexation is only days away.
His address, devoted to proving that Russia can’t be pushed around, was met with a standing ovation -- which is much less common here than in the U.S. Congress.
“Germany didn’t get Crimea and now Western Ukraine doesn’t get it either,” said the retired Russian Navy seaman, sipping coffee in the central Nakhimov Square. “The air is easier to breathe today!”
In Sevastopol several thousand people had flocked to the central square to watch Putin speak on a giant TV screen. They applauded loudly several times as he spoke -- when he said it would have been a betrayal to deny the Crimeans when they asked Russian troops to come protect them.
Workers around a stage in the square where fireworks went off Monday night were preparing to broadcast Tuesday’s speech by the now wildly popular Putin.
After Putin finished speaking and a treaty was signed, the crowd started dancing in the square and singing the Russian national anthem.
“Crimea is already Russia,” said Vladimir Popov, an engineer.
“We did it. We did it. We truly did it,” exclaimed Svetlana Kalinina, 53, as tears rolled down her cheeks from behind her sunglasses.
Kiril Somov, deputy director of a Moscow cultural and commercial center in Sevastopol, said nobody doubted Putin would recognize and accept Crimea into Russia. But. But he said it will not be easy to establish friendly relations with the spurned Ukraine, which still vows not to cede Crimea.
Another woman who said her first name was Natasha kept repeating “Thank you Putin.”
“The transition will be hard,” he said. “It will take time for people in Ukraine to realize we are not their enemies.”
“I have waited so long for this,” she said, “We were given away, like a sack of potatoes. And finally we are coming back home.”
Members of the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, taunted the West over financial sanctions that the United States, the European Union and Canada have put in place against several dozen individuals. Some of those on the lists, which are intended to punish officials involved in the Ukrainian crisis, said they were proud to be included.
The Duma drew up a draft response denouncing the sanctions Tuesday morning. Olga Batalina, of the ruling United Russia party, said in presenting the statement, “The U.S. has gotten so absorbed with playing the policy of double standards that it has stopped distinguishing black from white and patriots from fascists. They are so convinced of their own impunity that they allow themselves to pursue any stance just for the sake of it.”
The E.U. sanctions list targets members of the parliament and mid-level government officials. But the E.U. ambassador to Russia, Vygaudas Usackas, told the Interfax news agency that the sanctions list could soon be expanded. France announced that it may halt the $1.8 billion sale of two Mistral class warships to Russia, the foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told France’s TF1 television channel.
The ships were due to be delivered in 2015, to become part of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, based in Crimea.
“If Putin carries on like this, we could consider canceling these sales,” Fabius said.
Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of parliament, said she expects Crimea’s accession to proceed quickly. Matviyenko, who is on the American sanctions list, said that following the signing of a treaty between Russia and what it now recognizes as an independent Crimea, a transition period will allow for the adoption of new legislation in Crimea to bring it in compliance with Russian law.
When that is complete, she said, Russia’s constitution can be amended to allow for accession.
Crimea has already decided to adopt the ruble as its official currency and advance the clocks by two hours to be on Moscow time.
Legislators in the renamed parliament, the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, nullified Ukrainian laws and nationalized all Ukrainian state property on Monday. On March 30, Crimea will switch time zones. And starting April 1, pensions will be paid in rubles, though the Ukrainian hryvnia will not be phased out until January 2016.
On the heels of a referendum in which almost 97 percent of voters supported breaking away from Ukraine, the rapid-fire changes left some Crimeans uneasy about what will happen next.
“All those people were out there waving flags in the streets last night, but the rest of us are just waiting — for what, we don’t know,” said Dimitry Kozimov, a cafe manager in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, who is worried because his supplies of fresh meat from Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, have stopped. He has more questions than answers. Will his liquor license cost more? Can he still commute between his home in Ukraine and his job in a new Russian territory? Will he be taxed twice? “The only thing I’m sure of is that this is going to be a very difficult time for us.”
The whirlwind of activity by lawmakers failed to quell a pervasive sense of limbo — among Ukrainian troops stationed at Crimean bases and the region’s minority Muslim Tatar population. As the complicated unwinding began, many wondered whether they fit in.
At a Ukrainian military base in Belbek, outside Sevastopol, troops said they would fight to the last man if ordered by their commanders in Kiev. But they may be offered a choice: to stay and serve in a reconfigured force under Russian control or head back to what’s left of Ukraine.
“Something is going to happen. But we don’t know what,” said a soldier at the base, where Russians control the airstrip and Ukrainians run the rest of the facility.
Nearby, at base A2991, relations are warmer. Russian and Ukrainian troops swap food and hot water, and Russian soldiers stationed across the road charge cellphones from an extension cord run over to them by the Ukrainians.
“This is friendship between Slavic people,” shouted a soldier plugging in his phone to the makeshift power supply. He gave his name as Pavel and said he is from central Russia.
Dmitri Kozackovich, the Ukrainian deputy commander at the base, shrugged.
“They’ve been camping out there for three weeks,” he said of the Russians.
At another base in the area, A2355, marooned officers said there is no sign of promised reinforcements and hinted at a sense of abandonment.
“Don’t forget we exist,” said a major who gave only his first name, Yuri.
Among the more anxious groups are the 300,000 Crimean Tatars, many of whose leaders boycotted the referendum and challenged its honesty.
“There is just no way these figures are right,” said Mustafa Abliazov, a member of the Simferopol council for Crimean Tatars. “It was clear they decided way ahead of time that everything would be falsified. For Tatars, this is a big threat. We are an unarmed and law-abiding people, but how can we tolerate something like this?”
Simferopol streets that had been filled with celebratory throngs Sunday night after the vote were quiet Monday. Some Crimeans pondered their next steps.
“Some of my friends have already left. I’m going to wait and watch events and gather my courage,” said Dennis Matzola, 26, who had protested against the referendum and said he had found leaflets with his name and photograph pasted on neighborhood walls, telling people to report him as a traitor.
Yet many Crimeans remained jubilant at the referendum’s result.
In downtown Sevastopol, small groups huddled against an icy wind and shouted the name of Putin and sang the Russian national anthem — or at least what they knew of it.
Valentina Slavchenko, 58, said she woke up Monday at 6 a.m. in a joyous mood. She works at a hospital, where all the official paperwork and all the medication labels are written in Ukrainian, which she does not speak. She said she spent years doing her job with the help of a Russian-Ukrainian dictionary and translation pages on the Internet.
“We are all so happy now,” she said. “They should have made Ukraine a country with two official languages. If they had shown us more respect, we could have lived in Ukraine. Now I’m sure they regret it.”
Anthony Faiola in Kiev and Scott Wilson in Warsaw contributed to this report.
Anthony Faiola in Kiev and Scott Wilson in Warsaw contributed to this report.
