Putin Says Crimea Annexation Partly Response To NATO Enlargement

President Vladimir Putin said in a national call-in broadcast on April 17 that he hopes he will not have to use the right, granted to him by the Russian parliament, to use military force in eastern Ukraine. He called the current Kyiv authorities illegitimate, cast doubt on the Ukrainian presidential campaign, and said Russia's intervention in Crimea was partly a response to NATO's enlargement. (Reuters)