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. but what is also true is that over time this will be a costly proposition for russia. and now is the time for them to consider whether they can serve their interests in a way that resorts to diplomacy as opposes to force. secretary of state john kerry will be on the ground here in ukraine in kiev later on today. expected to depart shortly from andrews air force base. we ll bring you that departure
i want to bring in matthew chance who spent six years reporting from moscow. spent a lot of time here in ukraine and also ben wedeman is joining us in crimea. ben, let me start off with you. what is the situation you have been witnessing over the last 12-24 hours on the ground? certainly what we re seeing is that the russians are very much in control of all major areas in crimea, we were today at a court in the eastern part of the country where we saw a contingent of about 100 of these so-called men in green. we spoke to their commander and he in fact did have a hat with an insignia of the russian black fleet. he said his name was alexander, he said they d been there since the 1st of march. we saw that locals were coming
appear he had bad information in the meetings i was with him, or if it wasn t bad, it was deliberately falsified information. i mean, you ve heard, if you ve been watching any of the russian press as i have over the last few days, you would believe that there have been nazi organizations, terrorist organizations flooding into crimea, and, therefore, the russians there have to be protected. we know from your reporting and from cnn s reporting and other reporters in crimea, that that s absolute nonsense. so one wonders what kind of information president putin has at his disposal, and one has to be nervous about it if he doesn t have alternative sources of information. can vladimir putin be trusted? this is not a game of trust, this is a game of interest, short term versus long term, and i think the western world, including the president of the united states has to make clear
putin s objective in crimea, in the ukraine? well, his first objective is just to show that he s not done and he s not giving up ukraine. he and his government have been very frustrated by what happened in kiev just several weeks ago, they re very disappointed in preside president yanukovyk as a weak leader who does not represent their impulses. putin is saying, i m here, and you re going to have to deal with me. i don t think he s thought through the long term consequences. what is his end game? does he want a part of russia? i think that has yet been determined by president putin himself. there was a report in the new york times saying angela merkel had had a conversation with
off independence square. matthew, it is important to point out, we were talking about this during the break, this is not the only issue between the united states and russia. the united states in figuring out, trying to affect this situation here, they have to think about their other dealings with russia. absolutely. and that s something the united states and other western countries are going to have to think about when they weigh their response to this russian action in crimea. ukraine isn t the only square on the chess board, it s not just one square. there s an entire board. issues like cooperation with russia over syria, and a peace process there, potentially cooperation over the issue of iran, and it s very controversial nuclear program, getting north korea back to the negotiating table as well. these are areas where the united states and the west already 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