Last Ditch Ukrainian Talks End; Putin Won't Budge; Referendum to Go Forward

BALTIMORE, Maryland March 14, 2014 (12:46 pm) - The negotiations in London between USA Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have ended with Kerry conceding that Russian Strongman Vladimir Putin will make no substantive move with the troops that invaded Crimea until after the Sunday referendum on whether Crimea will cecede from the Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Kerry said that he had made a number of concrete proposals that he President Obama said protected Russia's "legitimate" interests in Ukraine while allowing the Ukrainian people to decide their own future. Kerry said the United States made clear to Lavrov and Putin that Russia's continued occupation of Ukraine will ahve consequences. And that is not a threat, Kerry said. It is simply a statement of the realities of the situation. Kerry acknowledged that Russia is not only occupying Crimea, but has massed troops on Ukraine's Eastern Border. Tank, Artillery and Infantry brigades along that border have been conducting vigorous war game exercises that Kerry and other interpret as Putin's way of further threatening Ukraine. Kerry urged Putin to pull those troops back.