Obama Works to Rein in Russia

“As Russia dispatched more forces and tightened its grip on the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday, President Obama embarked on a strategy intended to isolate Moscow and prevent it from seizing more Ukrainian territory even as he was pressured at home to respond more forcefully,” the New York Times reports.

“Working the telephone from the Oval Office, Mr. Obama rallied allies, agreed to send Secretary of State John Kerry to Kiev and approved a series of diplomatic and economic moves intended to ‘make it hurt,’ as one administration official put it. But the president found himself besieged by advice to take more assertive action.”

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports Putin “has agreed to a German proposal for international observers to review the tense standoff in Ukraine’s Crimea area.”