WASHINGTON — President Obama called Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday to get assurances that Moscow would back a hastily negotiated agreement on Ukraine’s future.
Obama phoned hours after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych reached a deal with the opposition to form a new unity government, release protesters and hold early elections.
“It’s clearly an important signal that the president and President Putin were able to talk positively about implementing this agreement,” a senior State Department official said.
While Putin has been accused of fanning the crisis by pledging billions of dollars’ worth of aid to Ukraine, Russia has much to lose, including billions of dollars in bank loans.
“Russia wants to remain part of the implementation process,” the State official said.
“One can only imagine that Russian television screens were as filled with brutality and violence as our television screens were filled with.”
A Russian envoy witnessed but didn’t sign the new accord.
Obama spoke to Putin for more than an hour amid increased criticism that his administration had failed to avert the Ukraine crisis.
“This is the most naive president in history,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Phoenix radio station KFYI.
“The naiveté of Barack Obama and [Secretary of State] John Kerry is stunning.”
McCain told the station Thursday that Putin has “played us so incredibly” by intimidating Ukraine last month from aligning with the EU.
Vice President Joe Biden appears to have a played a key role in the accord, giving Yanukovych a stern warning in an hourlong call Thursday after government clashes with protesters left more than 70 dead.
Biden “was extremely firm . . . that the space for a Democratic peaceful outcome here was closing extremely fast,” the State official said.
“It was because these guys have this longstanding relationship . . . that he has some trust and credibility in the bank with President Yanukovych.”