Obama in Europe with Ukraine high on agenda; Kiev orders Crimea withdrawal - The Washington Post: President Obama this evening will urge leaders of major industrial nations to indefinitely suspend Russia from the Group of Eight, and push members to more explicitly spell out what additional economic sanctions President Putin will face for his military intervention in Ukraine.
“As long as flagrantly violating international law, and the order the G7 has help built since the end of the Cold War, there is no reason to engage with Russia,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. “What Russia has done has been a violation of that entire international order built up over many decades.”
The meeting on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit here is the first of several sessions Obama plans to attend in the coming days with European allies and others over how to persuade Putin, once interested in further integrating Russia in the global economy, to pull forces back from eastern Ukraine and begin a dialogue with the government to resolve the crisis in Crimea.
Putin, though, has shown little interest in doing so. On Monday, Ukrainian leaders ordered their forces to leave Crimea under threat from Russian troops.
