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Stephanopoulos Grills Kerry: Is There Any Indication Putin Is Listening to Obama At All?
Mediaite ^ | March 2, 2014 | Evan McMurry

Posted on 03/02/2014 11:13:56 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

On This Week With George Stephanopoulos Sunday morning, the titular host pressed Secretary of State John Kerry for specifics as to the United States’ planned responses to Russia’s invasion of the Crimean peninsula, and whether President Barack Obama had the ability to execute repercussions against Russia. “All those violations,” Stephanopoulos said, “what’s the penalty for what Russia’s already done?”

“The United States is currently considering all options,” Kerry said. “This really puts into question Russia’s role in the world…They are inviting the possibility of very serious repercussions, on trade, on investment, on asset freeze, on visa bans, on the potential of actions by the global community.”

Kerry called upon Congress to pass economic aid for Ukraine, and Stephanopoulos asked if the US was considering economic sanctions against Russia, in addition to Ukrainian aid. “It may well come that we will have to engage in that kind of activity,” Kerry said.

Kerry added that Russia was jeopardizing its membership in the G8 and G20. “You cannot behave this way in the 21st Century, and sit around the table with the normal entities and pretend that life is as usual,” he said. “But we believe that there is an alternative. We call on Russia to engage with the government of Ukraine. We are prepared to work very closely with Russia in order to address the very legitimate concerns that exist.”

“Do you have any indication at all that President Putin is taking heed of what President Obama is saying?” Stephanopoulos asked, in reference to the fruitless phone call yesterday between Obama and Putin.

“Well, they just had the conservation yesterday,” Kerry said. “We’re going to continue to engage diplomatically. This is a time for diplomacy, in order to steer this away from an increase of tension and the level of the crisis.”

Watch the video below, via ABC News:

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections; Russia
KEYWORDS: bhorussia; kerry; obama; putin; soskerry; ukraine
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To: Teacher317
The parallels to the 1930's have been observed here many times. The fecklessness of the western democracies in facing up to a seemingly implacable foe, in the aftermath of exhausting warfare, is an ominous re-enactment.

Sadly, the left doesn't believe in history as we know it, and so they don't pay attention to it.

41 posted on 03/03/2014 5:18:15 AM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: RC one; 2ndDivisionVet
"Show of hands-who wants to go die for Crimea?"

There's no need for boots on the ground. How 'bout simply restoring the missile defense shield for Poland?

No, I guess not. It would take cojones to do that.

42 posted on 03/03/2014 5:18:57 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: DemforBush

I don’t trust Putin, nor do I like him. I do respect him.
He is a leader. Our leader is a clown.


43 posted on 03/03/2014 5:23:26 AM PST by stilloftyhenight (...staying home isn't an option.)
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To: stilloftyhenight

Putin knows what Snowden knows. Putin knows Obama is lame duck supreme. He knows Obama will continue to be bogged down by all the scandals and will get nowhere legislatively. He figures he has 2 years to arrange his part of the world the way he wants and that America will be that much further down the pole by then. No matter what we think of him, he has instilled pride in his country and recognizes the religious and moral side as being part of that. Obama is draining these aspects in his quest to diminish us as a country. Obama’s plan to gut the military insures we will not stand behind our allies. Welcome to a changed world.


44 posted on 03/03/2014 5:57:36 AM PST by taterjay
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To: taterjay

Hasn’t obumbo run out of red paint yet? Let me see, how many “Red Lines” has he painted now? Odumbo is nowhere near the league Putin is playing in.


45 posted on 03/03/2014 6:24:00 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They reserve the right to hit Putin with a fluffy pillow. Maybe even a very fluffy pillow, if he really misbehaves!


46 posted on 03/03/2014 6:26:08 AM PST by catbertz
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To: Viennacon

“Obama is just another world leader.........”

“LEADER”? You are being way too generous with that title. Odumbo couldn’t lead a dead chicken.


47 posted on 03/03/2014 6:26:33 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: Viennacon
poor countries increasingly see Russia as the world's power broker

That I know nothing about. But it does bring up the question of what is to follow here. Assume Russia stops funding Ukraine, gets its oil out without Ukranian pipelines, and Ukraine's new leaders turn to Europe and the US to replace Russian financial help. Europe's "help" to the poorer countries has been to put them hopelessly in debt, buy their assets, and even confiscate savings. Meanwhile, any country that doesn't make nice with Putin has an energy situation.

And Europe doesn't get the Crimea, which I'd suspect was the prize and the rationale for destabilizing Ukraine.

It boggles the mind that according to Obama Crimea can't through protests overturn the government that took over for the one that was driven out through protests. Even some US media experts are cynical.

What everybody is missing here is that these "peaceful protests" are no longer about having an election. They're about toppling the government. In how many countries has there been an offer to have another election? The protestors get that, and become more violent, with outside help.

Methinks that after Egypt, where the gov that was elected didn't work out well, it doesn't suit the global agenda.

It isn't even subtle manipulation anymore.

48 posted on 03/03/2014 6:42:53 AM PST by grania
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Putin has made a point of demonstrating that he is a manly man in hopes of thwarting Obama’s girlish advances, but Obama still has the hots for him. What else can Putin do, if not ignore Obama. The little faggot is a pest.


49 posted on 03/03/2014 6:53:04 AM PST by pallis
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I guess your comment to my #22 is tongue in cheek humor.

The billions spent on foreign aid (from taxpayers’ pockets) is nothing more than lame attements to make the foreigners “like” us and it does just the opposite; they hate us because the influx of dollars shows how poor they are and their leaders pocket most of those dollars.


50 posted on 03/03/2014 7:13:09 AM PST by octex
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“You cannot behave this way in the 21st Century,...

Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Syria, etc. etc.

The Russian actions in Crimea appears to be the normal behavior in the early 21st and late 20th Centuries.

51 posted on 03/03/2014 8:33:29 AM PST by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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Comment #52 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Kerry..... the Obummer ALMOST made him Secretary of Defense. That should scare the tar out of you..!!
53 posted on 03/03/2014 11:19:04 AM PST by unread (Rescind the 17th. Amendment...bring the power BACK to the states...!)
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To: ApplegateRanch

well played.


54 posted on 03/03/2014 5:18:32 PM PST by RC one (Militarized law enforcement is just a nice way of saying martial law enforcement.)
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To: stilloftyhenight

I feel much the same way. I trust Putin about as far as I could throw a T-72, but I do recognize he is a strong, smart, and *very* capable leader. One who has outmaneuvered the U.S. diplomatically on more than one occasion, I fear.


55 posted on 03/03/2014 6:19:49 PM PST by DemforBush (A Repo Man is *always* intense.)
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