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                    Obama: Putin Has Not Outmaneuvered West

   by VOA News

   U.S. President Barack Obama says Russia's economic troubles show
   Russian President Vladimir Putin has not managed to outmaneuver him or
   the United States.

   In an interview televised Sunday in the United States, Obama rejected
   the notion Putin was a "chessmaster" who outmaneuvered the United
   States and its Western allies in the struggle over territory in
   Ukraine.

   Obama said Putin was currently facing "the collapse of his currency, a
   major financial crisis, and a huge economic contraction." Russia's
   money woes follow a series of U.S. and EU trade sanctions imposed for
   Moscow's annexation of parts of eastern Ukraine earlier this year.

   Putin has remained defiant, despite a looming recession triggered by
   falling oil prices and a 40 percent drop in the value of the ruble
   currency.

   On Saturday, as his economic crisis deepened, Putin urged Russians to
   prepare "to undergo certain difficulties" in the days and months ahead.
   He said his country would not back down from "supporting compatriots"
   in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. His Foreign Ministry has promised to
   retaliate against the Western sanctions.

   The Kyiv government, the European Union and the United States accuse
   Moscow of stoking violence in Ukraine and arming pro-Russian
   separatists seeking autonomy near the Russian border.

   Moscow denies arming rebels and insists it annexed Crimea in March only
   after a referendum showed most Crimeans wanting to become a part of
   Russia.
   Kyiv and the West have condemned the plebiscite as illegitimate and a
   violation of international law.

   Some material for this report came from AFP and Reuters.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-putin-has-not-outmaneuvered-the-west/2568108.html