Obama: Ukraine, Syria are Not Pieces on ‘Some Cold-War Chessboard’

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn MartinPresident Barack Obama denied late Wednesday that Russian-US tensions over Syria and Ukraine were playing out on “some Cold-War chessboard” even as he acknowledged deep divisions between Moscow and Washington.

Obama, speaking at a joint press conference after a North American leaders’ summit, also flatly denied that the United States had played a role in stirring up the people against their government, saying that the uprisings “arose organically from within those countries.”

“I do think it is worth noting that you have, in this situation, one country that has clearly been a client state of Russia, another whose government is currently being supported by Russia,” he said.

But “our approach in the United States is not to see these as some Cold-War chessboard in which we’re in competition with Russia,” the president continued.

“Our goal is to make sure that the people of Ukraine are able to make decisions for themselves about their future, that the people of Syria are able to make the decisions without having bombs going off and killing women and children, or chemical weapons, or towns being starved because a despot wants to cling to power,” he said.