Obama says Russia "not abiding by deal"

Obama says Russia "not abiding by deal"

TOKYO -- U.S. President Barack Obama has accused Russia of not abiding by the agreement reached in Geneva on April 17 regarding a de-escalation in Ukraine.

This was his first comment on the subject since the meeting took place last week.

"There was some possibility that Russia could take the wiser course after the meeting in Geneva. So far at least we have seen them not abide by the spirit or the letter of the agreement in Geneva," Obama said in Tokyo, and added:

"Instead we continue to see malicious, armed men taking over buildings, harassing folks who are disagreeing with them, destabilizing the region and we haven't seen Russia step out and discouraging it."

According to him, the government in Kiev has taken very concrete steps, including the adoption of the amnesty law to live up to the Geneva accord.

Obama, who yesterday arrived in Japan at the beginning of his Asian tour, said that he was pessimistic from the beginning about Russia adhering to what was agreed in Geneva. AFP reproted that Obama "left a clear impression that it was a matter of if and not when Washington would go ahead with new, tougher sanctions against Russia, possibly hitting again at President Vladimir Putin's inner circle."

"There are a whole bunch of technical issues behind that," the news agency quoted him as saying.

"We've been very clear about the fact that there is not going to be a military solution to the problem in Ukraine," Obama also said.