Obama: Ukraine, Syria not competition between US, Russia

When it comes to the crises in Syria and Ukraine, President Barack Obama says he does not think there is a competition between the United States and Russia. "I think this is an expression of the hopes and aspirations of people inside of Syria and people inside of Ukraine who recognize that basic freedoms -- freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, fair and free elections, the ability to run a business without paying a bribe, to not be discriminated against because of your religion or your beliefs -- that those are fundamental rights that everybody wants to enjoy," Obama said during a joint news conference in Toluca, Mexico, with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, late on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a different view from that of the United States on many of the Syria and Ukraine issues, "and I do not think that there is any secret on that," Obama said. "And our approach as the United States is not to see these as some Cold War chessboard in which we are in competition with Russia," he said. "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 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." "Those express our values and our national interests, and we will continue to express those national interests," he said. "There are times, I hope, where Russia will recognize that over the long term they should be on board with those values and interests as well. Right now, there are times where we have strong disagreements. And when I speak to Putin, I am very candid about those disagreements, even as we will continue to pursue cooperation with Russia on areas where we have shared concerns." The situation in Ukraine "has to do with whether or not the people of Ukraine can determine their own destiny," Obama said, and he and Vice President Joe Biden have expressed to President Viktor Yanukovych "the need for him to recognize the spirit of the Ukrainian people and work with that, as opposed to trying to repress it. And so we will continue to stand on the side of the people." Obama said he hopes that a truce may hold in Ukraine, but ultimately "the government is responsible for making sure that we shift toward some sort of unity government, even if it is temporary, that allows us to move to fair and free elections so that the will of the Ukrainian people can be rightly expressed without the kinds of chaos we have seen on the streets and without the bloodshed that all of us I think strongly condemn."