President Vladimir Putin pledged Friday that Russia will respect the results of Ukraine's presidential election, a strong indication the Kremlin wants to cool down the crisis. But new violence and rebel vows to block the balloting made prospects for peace appear distant.
Could somebody not affiliated with our "reset" translation tell me what that means?
Because Russian elements are still inside eastern Ukraine stirring up the violence noted in the article. Putin is not some spectator watching from the sidelines. He's calling plays, you know.
And he still controls Crimea. Which until recently was Ukrainian territory.
So excuse me if I don't rush to celebrate the prospect of peace for our time.
When Putin says he will "respect" the results, does that mean he will judge that a failure to vote in large numbers in the east means Putin will judge that he has to respect the wishes of the people of that region not to be part of Ukraine?
Will all that packing activity at Russian units forward deployed near Ukraine just allow the Russians to move in to the east to seize control and dare Ukraine to fight Russia?
UPDATE: Of course, the whole Russian exercise of looming over eastern Ukraine could just be a ploy to make everyone happy that Putin "just" gets Crimea out of this act of aggression.
