Obama: Putin's Actions in Ukraine Motivated by Russian Nationalism - East Idaho News
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Obama: Putin’s Actions in Ukraine Motivated by Russian Nationalism

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Getty 032814 PutinPointing?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1396008692418Dmitri Azarov/Kommersant via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama believes President Vladimir Putin’s intervention in Ukraine is motivated by Russian nationalism and a belief that Russia has been “taken advantage of,” but says he is “entirely misreading the West.”

In an interview with CBS News, Obama said Putin is motivated by a “deeply held grievance about what he considers to be the loss of the Soviet Union.”

“I think there’s a strong sense of Russian nationalism and a sense that somehow the West has taken advantage of Russia in the past. And that he wants to in some fashion, you know, reverse that or make up for that,” he said. “He’s certainly misreading American foreign policy. We have no interest in encircling Russia and we have no interest in Ukraine, beyond letting the Ukrainian people make their own decisions about their own lives.”

Obama was also asked about his meeting with Pope Francis, whom he described as a “wonderful man.”

The president said he got the impression that the pope is “a little bit uncomfortable with all the trappings of being pope,” explaining “that’s just not his style.”

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