Zebra
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2011
- Messages
- 6,060
- Likes
- 2,303
Putin leaves G20 after Harper and other leaders press him on actions in Ukraine | National Post
Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News | November 15, 2014 | Last Updated: Nov 15 12:54 PM ET
Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News | November 15, 2014 | Last Updated: Nov 15 12:54 PM ET
BRISBANE, Australia – Russian President Vladimir Putin is to skip the last day of G20 leaders' two-day summit and return home early to Moscow after a chilly exchange with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and sharp criticisms from his Australian and American counterparts over Russia's seizure of Crimea and reports of fresh incursions by heavily armed Russian troops into eastern Ukraine.
Harper and Putin spoke briefly with each other Saturday morning at a retreat that organizers had hoped would allow summit leaders to get to know each other better. That goal seems to have been achieved, although not in the intended way.
The Canadian version of what happened, as provided by PMO spokesman Jason MacDonald, was that Harper found himself near Putin who extended his hand to the Canadian leader.
Reluctantly accepting Putin's hand, Harper was said to have told him: "I'll shake your hand, but I only have one thing to say to you: Get out of Ukraine."
Putin's terse rejoinder was "that's impossible because we are not there," the Russian leader's spokesman later told Canadian journalists.
Putin has insisted for months that no Russian troops have ever crossed into Ukraine. This is total nonsense.
I, myself, saw and spoke with Russia's "little green men" clad in the latest Russian uniforms and equipped with the best Russian gear who had come from bases in Central Russia to Crimea in the days before Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory. I saw them again, although slightly more disguised, in eastern Ukraine during the summer, where they fought a decisive tank and artillery battle with Ukrainian forces at the very moment when it appeared that Kyiv's forces would win back territory it had lost to Russian-backed and directed rebels.....