president putin today oversaw military training drills outside st. petersburg, russia. the message seemingly crystal clear, the russian military is ready. and just in the last few hours, new images of armored personnel carriers rolling into crimea. no question this time who these men are fighting for. throughout the european union and washington, it s been a day of fierce diplomatic efforts trying to figure out some sort of way to solve the crisis, to end the crisis on the ground in crimea. president obama spoke a short time ago today while he was meeting with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. listen. obviously the facts on the ground in crimea are deeply troubling, and russia has a large army that borders ukraine.
cooperate. when the united states weighs it s response, it s going to have to take that into account. it doesn t want to make an already bad situation even worse. ben wedeman on the ground in crimea. how present are russian forces and pro russian forces on the streets? are they manning roadblocks, intercepting people, checking people s identity papers? are people able to freely move about? life really seems to be going on pretty much as normal, the russians are sort of stationed around ukrainian military bases, as i said before, they were at this ferry port, but we drove for hours and hours throughout crimea today, and we didn t see any russians. no trucks, no men, nothing. and so they don t really interfere with the daily life of people going around. going about their business, they re concentrated in very specific areas. you see them at the airport.
how present are russian forces and pro russian forces on the streets? are they manning roadblocks, intercepting people, checking people s identity papers? are people able to freely move about? life really seems to be going on pretty much as normal, the russians are sort of stationed around ukrainian military bases, as i said before, they were at this ferry port, but we drove for hours and hours throughout crimea today, and we didn t see any russians. no trucks, no men, nothing. and so they don t really interfere with the daily life of people going around. going about their business, they re concentrated in very specific areas. you see them at the airport. but they re just just two or three walking around, they re not actually involved in the operations of facilities like airports, so it s a very bizarre situation where they re here but they don t really get in the way
there are some who are muslims, other groups as well, and if you hear russian officials, they make it sound as if there have been widespread acts of violence against russian speaking people in crimea and eastern ukraine. in terms of what you ve seen on the ground in crimea, have you witnessed any of that. have you had reports of any violence against russian speaking people prior to the russian troops arriving? none whatsoever, actually, in fact, i think people that the ukrainians are quite concerned about the russian presence. particularly the tatars who, if you recall in world war ii they were deported enmass by this by soviet forces and only allowed back in the early 1990s, they re vehemently anti-russian, and they re worried that if russian control becomes complete, they could be the ones
both for russian forces on the ground in crimea and ukrainian forces and also possibility nato forces or u.s. forces if it ever came to that. we ll be right back. gummies. they re delicious, and a good source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips.