STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 5 March 2014

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21. ANALYSTS: Russia Unlikely To Pull Back In Crimea

http://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-russia-unlikely-to-pull-back-in-crimea-2014-3

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia is unlikely to pull back its military forces in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, analysts and former Obama administration officials say, forcing the United States and Europe into a more limited strategy of trying to prevent President Vladimir Putin from making advances elsewhere in the former Soviet republic.

It's an unsettling scenario for President Barack Obama, who is under pressure to show he has leverage over Putin in a deepening conflict between East and West. The threat of economic sanctions, along with a series of modest measures that include canceling trade talks with Moscow and suspending plans to attend an international summit in Russia, have so far done little to persuade the Russian leader to pull his forces back from Crimea.

"I'm not optimistic they're going to leave," said Michael McFaul, who served as Obama's ambassador to Russia until just last week.

McFaul, in an interview on MSNBC, said he was expressing his personal view, not speaking on behalf of the administration. White House officials have condemned Russia's military maneuvers in Crimea as a violation of international law and insist they would oppose any long-term occupation of the region.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-russia-unlikely-to-pull-back-in-crimea-2014-3#ixzz2v5j4mBiW