Putin messages Obama on holiday

(MENAFN – The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Russian President Vladimir Putin has said relations between Moscow and Washington remain the most important factor in ensuring stability and security in the world. “It has initiated a coup and put the current Ukrainian leadership in power”, he said in a reference to the massive public protests that chased Ukraine’s ex- pro-Moscow president from office. “I know him. He’s not an easy man”. A truce was signed in February.

Reports suggest Russian Federation has violated the agreement.

In a congratulatory Fourth of July message on Saturday, Putin mentioned the important role of the two superpowers in global problems.

Russian Federation has “repeatedly demonstrated that it does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbours and it is willing to use force to achieve its goals”, the 2015 National Military Strategy said.

Putin expressed his certainty that “Russia and the USA can discover options to probably the most difficult worldwide points and effectively resist worldwide threats and challenges as they base their dialogue on rules of equality and respect of one another’s pursuits”.

Those buffer countries, newly independent once the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, obviously looked for protection from a repeat of their own history and eventually scrambled for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership. Russian Federation is now virtually surrounded on its western and southern borders by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member nations. We don’t want to get to that.

Mr Putin, who appears to be doing his utmost to deny Ukraine of its independence, has been accused in the past by the United States President over having a “different set of lawyers” to everyone else when it comes to global law. “But I don’t think there is any substitute other than constant engagement”.

Still, Putin called Obama at the end of June for the first time in four months.