Russia's Putin discusses Ukraine with OSCE

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday discussed the crisis in Ukraine with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter whose country chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Kremlin said.
   
Putin and Burkhalter "discussed the capabilities of the OSCE in the context of fostering a resolution of the crisis," the Kremlin statement said. It gave no details and said nothing about any agreement.
   
Talk of a mediation role for the OSCE has come to little. Burkhalter said on Tuesday the group would not send a mission to monitor a referendum in Crimea over whether the Ukrainian region should join Russia, warning the plebiscite would be illegal.

This comes as the first deputy prime minister of the southern Ukrainian region said that Crimea will soon take ownership of Ukrainian state companies on its territory.
   
At a news conference broadcast on Russian television, Rustam Temirgaliev said: "In the coming days the transfer is being prepared ... for a series of assets, belonging to the Ukrainian state which are located on the territory of Crimea."
   
He named energy company Chornomornaftohaz and the state railway company.

This comes after a joint naval exercise of U.S., Bulgarian and Romanian naval forces in the Black Sea has started, the Bulgarian navy said on Wednesday.
   
The USS Truxtun, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer with about 300 crew and part of the U.S. Sixth Fleet headquartered in Italy, joined the manoeuvres with Bulgarian naval frigate Drazki and three Romanian vessels in the Black Sea.
   
The drills started across the water from the Crimean Peninsula where Russian military groups have seized control from Ukrainian authorities.
   
"This time the exercise has begun as planned," Lieutenant-Colonel Dimitar Titev told Reuters. The drills were delayed by one day on Tuesday due to bad weather.
   
Bulgarian Defence Minister Angel Naydenov said that the Ukrainian ambassador to Sofia, Mikola Baltaji informed him that a joint BLACKSEAFOR naval exercise, that was to be led by Ukraine between March 28 and April 15, was cancelled.

Britain

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday he wanted to impose travel restrictions on "prominent Russian MPs" as part of the European Union's response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.
   
"We would be pushing for those travel bans to include some prominent Russian MPs," Cameron told reporters on a flight to Israel. "We had a meeting yesterday in London with partners about this and put that on the table."
   
Political agreement would still need to be reached among the EU's 28 countries before any travel bans were imposed. A meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday presents one possible date when such restrictions could be agreed.
   
Asked to whom the travel bans could apply, Cameron said: "The criteria is people who have been pushing for the unacceptable steps that have been taken."

Sanctions would threaten Russian economy

A trade conflict with Russia resulting from the current Ukraine crisis would be painful for Germany but it would be life-threatening for Russia's economy, Germany's BGA trade association said on Wednesday.
   
"All in all, we are optimistic about foreign business with large parts of the world. Unfortunately, that is not true for business with Russia," BGA said in a statement.
   
The trade association said it expected exports to grow by 3 percent this year and imports to expand by 2 percent, but added these forecasts would quickly become "waste paper" if the crisis in Crimea escalated further.

Obama to host new Ukrainian PM at White House    

President Barack Obama is hosting the new Ukrainian prime minister at the White House Wednesday, a high-profile gesture aimed at cementing the West's allegiance to Ukraine's fledgling government.          

The meeting between Obama and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk comes as a pro-Russian area of Ukraine readies for a referendum Sunday to determine its future. Voters in the Crimean Peninsula will be given two options: becoming part of Russia or remaining in Ukraine with broader powers.  
         
The U.S. and Europe have declared the referendum illegitimate, saying Ukraine's central government must be involved in decisions about its territory. The dispute over the future of the former Soviet republic has conjured up echoes of the Cold War tensions between East and West.