Putin calls to thank Argentina for "support" on Ukraine

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner held a "friendly" telephone conversation on 25 March with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, hearing his appreciation over "supportive" remarks made on the crisis in Crimea. The conversation was reported to have irked Ukraine's ambassador in Buenos Aires, belying his earlier impression that Argentina supported his country's territorial integrity, La Nación reported on 26 March. While Argentina has not backed Crimea's secession from the Ukraine, Russia was apparently grateful for recent comments by Mrs Kirchner on the "double standards" of some Western powers toward UN resolutions and territorial integrity. Argentina is in a dispute with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands. Mrs Kirchner wrote on Twitter that Western sanctions on Russia would merely impede "constructive dialogue" and her country favoured the "peaceful resolution" of conflicts, Télam agency reported. The conservative daily La Nación qualified the call as another instance of the Kirchner government's foreign policy double standards. Why send "positive" signals to Russia it asked, when Argentina condemned Crimea's secession in the UN Security Council. It stated that Ukraine's ambassador in Buenos Aires, Yurii Diudin, was "shocked" by the reportedly "friendly tone" of the conversation, when a week earlier a deputy-foreign minister had given him "Argentina's total support" over Crimea.