Posted on 03/04/2014 6:02:35 AM PST by marshmallow
MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called the acting authorities in Ukraine illegitimate, but said a military intervention in Russia’s western neighbor would be a last resort.
The remarks were the first public comments from Putin on the crisis in Ukraine since protesters in the capital, Kiev, swept to power last month.
Putin said Ukraine’s new government had no legal authority, and he urged new elections as soon as possible.
“The parliament is partially legitimate, but all the rest is not. The acting president does not have any legitimacy,” Putin told reporters.
While he denounced the Kiev authorities, Putin said Russia was not planning any imminent military action. “The use of troops is a last resort,” he said. “There is no necessity to do it at the moment, though that option is on the table.”
Any intervention would be purely humanitarian in nature, Putin said.
“If we take a decision to deploy troops then it will only be for the people’s protection,” he said. “Our militaries are brothers in arms, friends. I am sure that Ukrainian and Russian soldiers will be on the same side of the barricade.”
Troops under apparent Russian command, many of them traveling in military trucks and armored personnel carriers, have deployed widely around Crimea, as attested by numerous eyewitness accounts from reporters on the ground.
The troops have seized key strategic points across the peninsula, provoking a tense standoff with the Ukrainian military. Officials in Kiev and other capitals across the world have described the actions as an invasion.
Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, approved on Saturday a request by Putin for the deployment of troops inside Ukraine.
While Putin said he did not agree with the methods of the protesters who overthrew Ukrainian President Viktor......
(Excerpt) Read more at en.ria.ru ...
Order needs to be restored in Ukraine followed by elections. The revolutionaries can make their point at the ballot box.
Perhaps you could post a list of OWS demands side-by-side with those of the Ukrainian protestors. Lets see how much you know of philosophy.
Putin is exactly right. Yanukovych was elected president .......
Agreed.
In Syria and Libya, Obama and his muslim brotherhood didn’t like the people in charge so we sought to kill them. And in Egypt, we sought to oust their leader.
It’s not our job to determine every form of government on the planet.
If you can overthrow a legally elected president just with a bunch of protesters can we do that here?
Russia does not consider the Kiev regime legitimate. A regime not elected by its voters is not a democratic regime by any stretch of the word. Russia has a sound case here and its recent actions are based on that case.
That said, a legal wrong cannot be cured by another legal wrong as you know. Russia’s humanitarian intervention in Crimea calmed a dangerous situation. Instead of being thanked for it in the West, the West calls for threats and sanctions against Russia for assisting in trying to prevent the chaos in Ukraine from spreading. No government in the world could be indifferent in the face of such danger.
That said - force resulting in bloodshed is unthinkable. It must not be allowed to materialize. Every one should work for a political solution to normalize the situation in Ukraine. This is the time for cooler heads to prevail in the West as well as in Russia.
Yet we applaud rabble creating walls of burning tires in Kiev? We say their actions were okay to oust a government? We applaud AlQuaida chaos in Syria?
These ousters of governments instead of improving the election process are a dircetion that will be difficult to reverse. It's not good for what's left of civilization.
Following the logic the US has been promoting globally, those veterans in DC should've been allowed to use their military skills and demand that our President step down.
I agree. Bring Yanukovych back to Kiev, charge him with crimes, and have a trial. If he’s found guilt hang him and elect a new president.
The sad thing is that, from what little I've been able to stand to listen to on the radio, conservative pundits appear mainly to be clueless and out to lunch on this topic. That certainly is the case with Sean Hannity.
I am starting to get a better idea of what is going on now.
I am listening to a local conservative radio show. A fellow by the name of Bruce Johnson is speaking of UKRAINE AND HOW THIS GOT STARTED.
He says that the US sent agitators like they did in the middle east to stir up revolution and to get rid of their President and push Ukraine toward Europe.
Putin knows this and that is why he is acting as he is.
In otherwards, this is another botched meddling incident about like Egypt bu the Obama administration.
Remember the O admin said they were not going to meddle? hah, It was the opposite.
If George Soros, McCain, and Obongo had called the protestors "right wing extremists", did not give them billions of dollars, and basically treated them like Waco Branch Davidians I would be 100% behind them. As it stands now Putin can do his worst for all I care.
You have addressed the core hypocrisy. For a government that lives in house of straw, the usual suspects who live in Versailles on the Potomac sure are fond of vote by arson.
The majority of “conservative pundits” are whores of the status quo. Our political conflict is as real as a dummy’s insolence towards the ventriloquist.
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