Analysts: Russian unlikely to pull back in Crimea

By: 11 years ago

In this Feb. 28, 2014, photo, President Barack Obama speaks about the ongoing situation in Ukraine in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. AP

WASHINGTON—Analysts and former Obama administration officials say Russia is unlikely to pull back its forces in Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, 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 United States has so far threatened Russia with economic sanctions, as well as a series of modest measures that include canceling trade talks with Moscow and suspending plans to attend an international summit in Russia. But those steps have done little to persuade the Russian leader to pull his forces back from Crimea.