Washington – Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama spoke by telephone Thursday and discussed continued tensions in eastern Ukraine and the fight against the Islamic State in the Middle East. The last time the men spoke was in February, the White House said.
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Both the White House and the Kremlin offered similar statements descibing the conversation, Thursday evening. The White House said Putin initiated the call to Obama.
The White House said Obama told Putin Russia needs to meet commitments it made in Minsk, Belarus, earlier this year, including the removal of troops and equipment from Ukrainian territory. The Kremlin said the two leaders agreed that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin will discuss implementation of these agreements.
The call came on the same day NATO’s supreme allied commander cited a continuous flow of ammunition and other military supplies from Russia across the border to Ukraine.
The Kremlin said the two men devoted “significant attention” to confronting terrorism and the Islamic State in particular and agreed to have Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meet to review the issue.
The White House and the Kremlin said the two leaders also addressed continued bloodshed in Syria and agreed on the importance of unity among the six world powers that are negotiating to restrict Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The call from Putin came just days after the Russian leader spoke with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the situation in eastern Ukraine, a day before Paris talks between the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine.
France and Germany co-sponsored February’s peace deal that helped reduce hostilities between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian troops, but fighting again escalated in recent weeks.
It’s just so pathetic to see how every country is busy trying to solve other countries internal problems. Germany and France have enough of their own problems to worry and co-sponsor peace deals. And when it comes to Israel the world is obsessed in trying to blame Israel for all of the problems out there. What a world!
Why would Putin call the White House to discuss all three issues at once? The most dangerous issue at hand is Ukraine, with weapons flowing in from Russia…I think this could be a preclude to a bigger attack, and he is testing the waters and the will. Oil prices are about 50% down and Russia needs the money desperately. He may want to start a war to bring up the prices and the over $100-$170 billion in revenue that Russia lost from lower prices…Russia exports were about $550 billion before the oil collapse…imagine losing about $130 billion – that is a lot, a lot of money, which has to be made up in other way…
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. If Putin’s facial expression doesn’t reveal everything he thinks about Barack, nothing will.