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President Vladimir Putin told US President Barack Obama on Sunday the referendum on Crimea
joining Russia was fully legal, but the two leaders also agreed to work together to find
ways out of the Ukraine crisis, the Kremlin said. (Crimea votes to secede from Ukraine
as Russian troops keep watch) The telephone conversation between Putin and
Obama, which the Kremlin said were held at the initiative of the American side, came
amid soaring US-Russia tensions as initial results showed Crimea had voted to leave Ukraine
and join Russia. "(Putin) emphasised that it was fully in line
with the norms of international law and the UN charter," the Kremlin said.
It added that the referendum took into account "the well-known precedent of Kosovo" which
has been recognised by more than 100 countries, including the United States and all but five
EU members since declaring independence from Serbia in 2008.
But the statement said the two leaders also agreed that "despite the differences in assessment
it is necessary to jointly search for ways of stabilising the situation in Ukraine".
Putin also told the US president that any Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission should cover "all Ukrainian regions" and not just
Crimea. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Putin
earlier Sunday that she backed a bigger role in Ukraine for the OSCE, in particular in
the tense east of the country. The Russian leader, who has not recognised
the new pro-West authorities in Kiev after the fall of president Viktor Yanukovych last
month, told Obama that Moscow was unhappy with the Ukrainian government's failure to
crack down on "ultra-nationalist and radical groups".
He said such groups were "destabilising the situation and terrorising peaceful inhabitants
as well as the Russian-speaking population".