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Russian diplomat says Obama wants to resolve crises in Ukraine, Syria before his term ends

Russia's UN envoy noted the importance of contacts on settling the situation in Ukraine by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov

© AP Photo/Evan Vucci

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. US leadership hopes to settle the Ukrainian crisis and Syrian conflict before Barack Obama’s presidential term ends, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Tuesday.

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"I have an impression that Americans would want - Obama would want the Ukrainian crisis and the Syrian crisis to be settled by the end of his presidential term. I think that the Ukrainian crisis has far more chances to be settled than the Syrian crisis," Churkin said in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station.

Obama and US State Secretary John Kerry want to leave the world in a better state "than the state it ended up in when they tried to manipulate different processes," the diplomat said.

Churkin noted the importance of contacts on settling the situation in Ukraine by US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov. "It is hard to deny, and everyone understands it, that US has a decisive influence on Kiev. Not Germany, not France - but the United States," he concluded.

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