Report: Putin told Diplomats He Pitched Trump on Crimea Referendum

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly proposed a “referendum” to decide the future of Ukraine this week to President Donald Trump, and the two men agreed not to disclose the proposal publicly so that Trump “could consider it,” two sources told Bloomberg. Putin, in a closed-door speech Thursday, allegedly told his audience that his plan involved having those in separatist regions in Ukraine “call for a vote conducted under international auspices…[to determine] their status.” The Russian president mentioned the referendum held in 2014 during a press conference in Helsinki Monday, which the international community has not recognized as legitimate. During the same press conference, Trump left the possibility open of recognizing Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea—which has led to an ongoing crisis and violence in “eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.” Those not in the pro-Russian regions, along with the rest of Europe, back a “2015 European-brokered truce deal for the Donbas region.”