Live Blog: UN Backs Ukraine Integrity

Karapetian rushed to deny the report, saying that his meeting with Turchak was of a ‘fact-finding nature’ and that during it they mostly discussed community issues, as well as issues connected with the development of economic ties between the Pskov Oblast and Armenia.

The Armenian diplomat underscored that he did not make any such statements during the meeting, suggesting that the reporter who covered the event "may have confused something."

“Taking the opportunity, I said that, of course, our official position is -- and both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other sources declared about that -- that the right of peoples to self-determination, which was accepted in relevant UN documents, must be respected. I also cited the example of Nagorno-Karabakh as a self-determined territory and our conversation was limited to that," Karapetian explained.

"Probably the regional correspondent, who was listening to our conversation, concluded for himself that this could be presented as a greeting or congratulation regarding the recognition of Crimea [as part of Russia], and that way the wrongwording appeared. I corrected that, turning to the corresponding news service, the problem was corrected,” Armenia’s consul general to St. Petersburg told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am).

"Such decision does not meet Ukrainian obligations in the area of human rights, in particular media freedom, in the least. And certainly, such kind of a decision has nothing to do with the declarations of the de facto authorities in Kyiv about their intentions to respect human rights, basic freedoms, and to strengthen democracy."

Catalonia's President Artur Mas said Wednesday the region's efforts to gain independence from Spain will continue, despite Spanish judges overruling Catalonia's claim of sovereignty.

Mas told the regional parliament that "the political process continues."

Spain's Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that a declaration of sovereignty approved by Catalonian lawmakers last year was illegal under Spain's constitution.

The court said the constitution also forbids Catalonia to unilaterally call a referendum on independence. Mas had earlier suggested that once all legal roads are exhausted, he will use Catalonia's 2016 election as a proxy vote on the issue.

Opinion polls suggest more than half of Catalonians support secession from Spain. Catalonia is home to 7.5 million of Spain's total population of 46 million people.

The region accounts for more than one-fifth of Spain's economic output.

In its annual report, the World Bank said Russia's GDP could contract by 1.8 percent in 2014 if the United States and the EU hit Moscow with trade sanctions.

It said that even if the West does not implement trade sanctions against Russia, the economy will only grow at 1.1 percent this year.

The Russian economy grew 1.3 percent last year, its second slowest growth year since 2001. The World Bank also said some $70 billion left Russia in the first three months of 2014, more than all of last year.

U.S. President Barack Obama and the other G7 leaders have agreed not to pursue tougher sanctions against Russia unless it takes further action in Ukraine or another neighboring country.

Mr. Harper said G7 members are not convinced Moscow’s territorial grabs are finished. “We are very concerned that they have not necessarily stopped [in Crimea] … The fact that they explicitly said they have stopped here gives us no confidence. They assured us they wouldn’t do this kind of thing in the first place.”

The Prime Minister has twice in two days devoted part of his remarks on the European crisis to preparing Canadian business for the possibility of economic sanctions and retaliation from Moscow.