Biden Defends US Cooperation On Russia Amid Ukraine Tensions

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

By JULIE PACE
AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday defended the Obama administration's decision to cooperate with Russia on areas of "clear mutual interest," even as the West tries to punish Moscow for its actions in Ukraine.

Biden said economic sanctions against Russia should remain until a peace accord with Ukraine can be put in place. He said the penalties and other attempts to retaliate against Russia are aimed not at forcing "regime change," but at getting President Vladimir Putin to act more rationally.

Biden's comments at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, come more than a year after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Kiev also accuses Moscow of arming and staffing separatist insurgencies in eastern Ukraine.
--clip

Still, the U.S. and Europe have continued to work alongside Russia in the bid for a nuclear deal to block Iran's nuclear program. Russia's cooperation is also crucial to efforts to end Syria's civil war, given that Moscow is the largest benefactor of the government in Damascus.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BIDEN_RUSSIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-27-13-58-30

[cstanleytech]

1. I don't see what the big deal is to be honest.

Last edited Wed May 27, 2015, 04:47 PM - Edit history (1)

After all there are clearly times that the U.S. and Russia are going to agree that they have a mutual interest in doing something, kind of like how the Democrats and the Republicans will work together to pass a bill or at least how they used to before the Republicans went batshit insane over a black Democrat becoming president.

[nyabingi]

2. C'mon Joe, be honest

I don't think Putin has been the one acting irrationally during this whole Ukraine saga. It was Russia's diplomatic intervention in Syria that averted a cruise missile attack on Damascus by getting Assad's government to destroy whatever chemical weapons they had (and this pissed off Saudi Arabia, who ramped up their funds to the radical Islamists seeking to overthrow Assad).

There is clear evidence that the US was heavily involved in placing Ukraine's new far-right leadership, and we're openly sending our military there to help the Kiev regime wage war against their countrymen in the south and east.

It's Biden and Obama who need to start thinking rationally and stop all of the killing they have going on right now.

[Caspian Morgan]

3. Russia can't be all bad if they make singers like this one.

All the Eurovision acts were amazing this year. Romania also had a very beautiful song about fathers that have to leave their children behind to go find work in foreign countries.

[MisterP]

4. it's the same language they used against Nicaragua--it's not an overthrow, it's just pressure

the Contras were like ISIS (even down to the annual death toll) but couldn't even hold any any land

[okaawhatever]

7. There is NOT "clear evidence that the US was heavily involved..." Give it a rest nt

[nyabingi]

8. Yes, there is

Whether you choose to believe it or not (because after all, Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize and is a force for good in the world) is on you but that doesn't change reality.

[Jesus Malverde]

5. The neocon collapse russia strategy has itself collapsed...nt

[Caspian Morgan]

6. I think I would agree with that.

I mean how many fake Russian invasions are we supposed to believe are taking place at this point? And the eastern part of Ukraine is so small that they could have taken it long ago if they wanted.