Russian President Vladimir Putin called American President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss a US diplomatic proposal for Ukraine, the White House said. It was believed to have been the first direct conversation between Obama and Putin since the United States and its European allies began imposing sanctions on Putin's inner circle and threatened to penalize key sectors of Russia's economy.
Putin called to discuss a US proposal for a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine crisis, which Secretary of State John Kerry again presented to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Hague meeting earlier this week.
"President Obama suggested that Russia put a concrete response in writing and the presidents agreed that Kerry and Lavrov would meet to discuss next steps," the White House said.
A senior Obama administration official described the call as "frank and direct," and said the next step is the Kerry-Lavrov follow-up discussions to see "whether the Russians are serious about diplomacy".
The official also said Obama and Putin discussed the latest version of a "working document" that Kerry and Lavrov have been working on regarding ways to defuse the crisis.
"We have been in close touch with the Ukrainian government in this process," the official added.
Obama and European leaders this week piled pressure on Russia in their attempt to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis in a peaceful way. In a speech on Wednesday in Brussels, Obama built his case for sanctions against parts of the Russian economy (like the energy industry) and said NATO would bolster its presence in the alliance's member nations close to Russia.
The White House said Obama stressed to Putin that the United States continues to support a diplomatic path in close consultation with Ukrainian's self-appointed government.
Lavrov, Kerry talked about the need to respect the outcome of the referendum in the-Crimea
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that during the meeting in the Hague he discussed with the US Secretary of State John Kerry the need to respect the results of the referendum in the Crimea.
"We reiterated the need to fully respect the results of the referendum, which was held in the Crimea. We talked about the need to finally adopt drastic measures in order to prevent the excesses of radicals and their intrusion into the political life of Ukraine. This was agreed on 21 February, when an agreement was signed between the president and the opposition in the presence of the three foreign ministers of the European Union and this condition shouldn’t be influenced by any other factors", Lavrov told the reporters after the meeting.
The Russian foreign minister also stressed that "radicals have no place in modern society."
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