Germany calls Putin's Crimea claim "religious magnification":
Berlin (dpa) - A claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Crimea is like the Temple Mount to Russians was rejected as a "religious magnification" Friday by a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"That in no way justifies the breach of international law that Russia committed by the annexation of Crimea," Steffen Seibert said, adding that the peninsula had been the home of various ethnic groups of varying religions for centuries.
He insisted that German policies on the Ukraine conflict are not anti-Russian but are designed to call a breach of international law what it is and create incentives for a diplomatic solution.
Putin‘s remarks Thursday had "an obviously domestic motivation," Siebert said.
Putin had said in a Moscow speech that the Crimea is as sacred to Russia as Jerusalem‘s Temple Mount is to Jewish people.
"It was here that the spiritual source of the long-standing monolith of the Russian nation and the Russian central state were formed," Putin said.
Investigative journalist Oleksiy Matsuka: Reforms in Ukraine are very needed, regardless of the conflict. First of all, we need reforms against the corruption of government and the influence of big corporations and oligarchs. And the best possible methods of the reforms must be discussed by society. Unfortunately, there is no dialogue between the government and the people, and the decisions are still being made in the same way as in Yanukovych’s time. It’s a big problem, because there have been no changes in the democratic process so far.
Meanwhile in Kazakhstan... Nazarbaev the peacemaker
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has told the French president that sanctions are having little effect on Russia and European countries should seek compromise with Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine.
At a joint news conference after talks with Francois Hollande in Astana, the Kazakh capital, Nazarbaev said the parties must find common ground "to resolve this crisis."
He said the confrontation over Ukraine "has not helped anyone, but has had a negative impact on the international political situation and the economy of Europe, Asia and the world as a whole."
Nazarbaev said that "putting each other into a corner with sanctions does not give results" and that the impact of Western sanctions on Russia has been limited because Russia is "not very strongly integrated" into the world economy.