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                     NATO, Russia to Meet on Ukraine Crisis

   NATO and Russia have agreed to meet Wednesday for talks on the crisis
   in Ukraine. That meeting, in Brussels, will be the first public contact
   between the Western defense alliance and Russia`s envoys since its
   forces moved into Ukraine`s Crimean peninsula late last week.
   NATO announced the extraordinary session Tuesday, saying it was
   requested by Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The alliance
   offered no further details.
   Members of NATO met earlier Tuesday at the request of Poland, which
   shares a border with Ukraine. Afterward, the alliance said the Russian
   military presence in Ukraine presents "serious implications for the
   security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area."
   In Washington Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama called on Russia to
   open talks with the interim Ukrainian government, and to allow
   international monitors to determine whether ethnic Russians in Ukraine
   are under threat, as alleged by Moscow.
   Mr. Obama`s comments followed a news conference in Moscow by Russian
   President Vladimir Putin, who defended his country`s military
   intervention in Crimea.
   The Russian leader said he reserves the right to protect Russians in
   Ukraine. But he also insisted that gunmen blocking Ukrainian military
   units in the region are "local self-defense forces," not Russian
   soldiers.
   President Obama countered that Moscow has no legal right to intervene
   militarily, while acknowledging that Mr. Putin "seems to have a
   different set of lawyers making a different set of interpretations."
   In Kyiv Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also condemned
   Russian actions in Crimea and pledged U.S. economic help to the interim
   government. As he arrived in the capital, the Obama administration
   announced a $1 billion energy subsidy package for Ukraine, which is
   teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
   The U.S. diplomat spoke after meeting with Ukraine`s top officials and
   visiting the site of a memorial to protesters killed in weeks of
   clashes with riot police. Those protests forced then-president Viktor
   Yanukovych to flee Ukraine in late February.
   The Crimean peninsula was placed under Ukrainian control in 1954 by
   then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It remained part of Ukraine when
   the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Crimea has a tiny border with
   Russia on its far eastern point, and the Crimean port of Sevastapol is
   home to Russia`s Black Sea fleet.
   Most residents of Crimea are ethnic Russians, but the region also is
   home to ethnic Muslim Tatars, who generally show disdain for Russia.
   Ukrainian officials say Moscow has sent 16,000 troops into Crimea since
   last week.
   Ukraine`s troubles began in November, when President Yanukovych backed
   out of a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties and
   economic aid from Russia. The move triggered weeks of pro-Western
   anti-government demonstrations in Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine, and
   forced the pro-Russian Yanukovych to flee the capital in late February.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/nato-russia-to-meet-on-ukraine-crisis
   /1864339.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/nato-russia-to-meet-on-ukraine-crisis/1864339.html