Obama's Stern Message To Russia: Rethink Referendum In Crimea скачать в хорошем качестве

Obama's Stern Message To Russia: Rethink Referendum In Crimea

President Obama says the U.S. would "completely reject" a referendum to allow the Ukraine's Crimean area to join Russia. He made the remarks while sitting side by side with Ukraine's new leader at the White House and said that he hoped there would be a "rethinking" by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the referendum. Transcript: we completely reject a referendum patched together in a few weeks with Russian military personnel basically taking over Crimea. We reject its legitimacy. It is contrary to international law. It is contrary to the Ukrainian constitution. I know that we've heard from the Russian Federation this notion that these kinds of decisions are often made in other places, and they've even analogized it to Scotland or other situations of that sort. In each of those cases that they've cited, decisions were made by a national government through a long, lengthy, deliberative process. It's not something that happens in a few days, and it's not something that happens with an outside army essentially taking over the region. As you just heard the Prime Minister indicate, the people of Ukraine recognize historic ties with the people of Russia. The Prime Minister you just heard say, repeat what he said often, which is they're prepared to respect all international treaties and obligations that they are signatories to, including Russian basing rights in Crimea. The issue now is whether or not Russia is able to militarily dominate a region of somebody else's country, engineer a slapdash referendum, and ignore not only the Ukrainian constitution but a Ukrainian government that includes parties that are historically in opposition with each other -- including, by the way, the party of the previous President. So we will not recognize, certainly, any referendum that goes forward. My hope is, is that as a consequence of diplomatic efforts over the next several days that there will be a rethinking of the process that's been put forward. We have already put in place the architecture for us to apply financial and economic consequences to actions that are taken. But our strong preference is to resolve this diplomatically. And as you heard the Prime Minister say, this idea that somehow the Ukrainian people are forced to choose between good relations with the West or good relations with Russia, economic ties with the West or economic ties with Russia, is the kind of zero-sum formulation that in the 21st century, with a highly integrated, global economy, doesn't make any sense and is not in the interests of the Ukrainian people. I actually think, in the end, it's not in the interests of Russia either. Russia should be thinking about how can it work with Ukraine to further strengthen its economic ties and trade and exchanges with Europe. That will make Russia stronger, not weaker. But obviously Mr. Putin has some different ideas at this point. We do not know yet what our diplomatic efforts will yield, but we'll keep on pressing. In the meantime, the main message I want to send is that we are highly supportive of a government in Kyiv that is taking on some very tough decisions, is committed to law and order, inclusivity, committed to the rights of all Ukrainian people, and is committed to fair and free elections that should settle once and for all any questions that there may be about what's transpired since former President Yanukovych left the country. And the most important thing to remember is this is up to the Ukrainian people. It's not up to the United States. It's not up to Russia. It's up to the Ukrainian people to make a decision about how they want to live their lives. That's what all of us should support. And certainly that's the reason why I'm so pleased to have the Prime Minister here today.