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       Putin Asks Parliament to Withdraw Request for Ukraine Intervention

   by VOA News

   President Vladimir Putin has asked Russian lawmakers to revoke the
   right they had granted for Russian forces to intervene in Ukraine,
   Russian news agencies reported.
   The reports said that Putin issued the request to the upper house of
   parliament Tuesday.
   Late Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama[1] urged Putin by telephone to
   help implement Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko's plan for easing
   political tensions, starting with a cease-fire declared on Friday.
   The White House said the president called on Putin to pressure
   Ukraine's pro-Russia separatists to observe the week-long ceasefire and
   to halt the flow of weapons across the border from Russia to Ukraine.

   Cease-fire
   Also Monday, a leader of pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian
   troops in eastern Ukraine said the rebels will observe a truce until
   June 27, to run parallel with Poroshenko's cease-fire.
   The announcement came as rebels joined Russian envoys and Ukrainian
   negotiators in talks aimed at ending the crisis gripping the former
   Soviet republic. Former president Leonid Kuchma represented Ukraine.
   Kuchma told reporters that because of the deal "one of the key problems
   [blocking negotiations] has been resolved."
   Officials say further talks are set for this week.
   Russia's Ukraine Ambassador Mikhail Zurabov and Viktor Medvedchuk -- a
   close associate of Russian President Putin -- also attended the Donetsk
   talks, along with an envoy from the Organization for Security and
   Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
   Stocks rise
   The dollar-denominated RTS index rose more than 1 percent, a five-month
   high, immediately after Russian news agencies reported Putin's move,
   citing his official spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

   The index was up more than 2.5 percent on Monday's close by 1014 GMT,
   surpassing 1,400 points for the first time since mid-January. The
   rouble was up 0.7 percent against the dollar from the previous close.
   On Monday, the European Union threatened to impose further sanctions on
   Moscow if it fails to support Poroshenko's peace initiative.
   The EU and the United States have so far refrained from imposing
   economic sanctions more broadly on the Russian economy, choosing
   instead specific sanctions against key individuals and companies after
   Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula earlier this year.
   Kyiv and Moscow have been locked in a tense standoff since late
   February, when Ukrainian protesters forced Russian-backed president
   Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country after months of anti-government
   demonstrations in Kyiv.  The Russian parliament voted to annex Crimea
   weeks later, over protests from Kyiv and a host of Western governments.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/putin-asks-parliament-to-withdraw-req
   uest-for-ukraine-intervention/1943592.html

References

   1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/23/readout-president-s-call-president-putin-russia
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/putin-asks-parliament-to-withdraw-request-for-ukraine-intervention/1943592.html