Ambassador to Russia confirmed
The Senate confirmed John F. Tefft as the United States’ ambassador to Russia, filling a post that had been vacant since February. Tefft is a career diplomat who had been the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Georgia and Lithuania. The previous ambassador, Michael McFaul, resigned after a two-year tenure that began with accusations by the Russian media that he was sent to help stir up widespread protests against President Vladimir Putin.
New York Times
President Barack Obama told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that the United States remains deeply concerned that Russia is ramping up support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. He later conceded that pressure from recently imposed U.S. and European sanctions “hasn’t resolved the problem yet.”
In a phone call between the two leaders, Obama also raised concerns that Russia violated a key Cold War-era nuclear weapons treaty, the White House said. The Obama administration has said Russia violated a 1987 treaty that bans all U.S. and Russian missiles of intermediate range, meaning those that can travel between about 300 miles and about 3,400 miles.
Putin in the call characterized the sanctions as counterproductive, adding that they seriously damage bilateral cooperation and general global stability, according to a Kremlin report on the call.
It was the first conversation between the leaders since the U.S. and Europe slapped a new round of economic sanctions on Russia in an effort to get Putin to back off from Moscow’s military support of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
“I indicated to him, just as we will do what we say we do in terms of sanctions, we’ll also do what we say in terms of wanting to resolve this issue diplomatically if he takes a different position,” Obama told reporters later.
The Kremlin said both Obama and Putin underscored the urgency for bringing an end to fighting in eastern Ukraine and spoke positively about a meeting that took place the day before in Minsk, Belarus, among members of a diplomatic “contact group” pursuing an end to hostilities. That group includes representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“If he respects and honors the right of Ukrainians to determine their own destiny,” Obama said in an afternoon news conference, “then it’s possible to make sure that Russian interests are addressed that are legitimate and that Ukrainians are able to make their own decisions, and we can resolve this conflict and end some of the bloodshed.”
In a lengthy statement devoted to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. report that included the allegation that Russia had violated the pact that President Ronald Reagan signed with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
“The claims are put forward practically without evidence, based on strange deductions and suppositions,” the statement said.
The Obama-Putin call came as the U.S. was poised to send an additional $27 million in military aid to Ukraine in an effort to strengthen the struggling nation’s national guard and beef up its ability to protect its border.
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