THE two presidents could not have offered a greater contrast. Announcing new sanctions against Russia on July 16th, America’s Barack Obama read a prepared statement and took no questions. Minutes later, Russia’s Vladimir Putin staged an off-the-cuff press conference in Brazil to assail the sanctions’ legitimacy. He let emotion take hold, reaching a crescendo during a riff about the “tears of mothers, widows and orphans” in Ukraine.The new sanctions come at a crucial juncture in Ukraine’s war. The death toll, both civilian and military, is rising as the fighting creeps into Donetsk and Luhansk, eastern Ukraine’s two biggest cities. Russia …read more
Source: The Economist
