Russian Leader Denies Forces Operating in Crimea and Obama Says Putin 'Not Fooling Anybody'

President Vladimir Putin denied on Tuesday that Russian troops were operating in the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea, while sending Moscow's forces to Ukraine would be an entirely legitimate move but also a last resort.

U.S. President Barack Obama, however, said Putin's rationale for his incursion into Crimea was not "fooling anybody" and said Russian "meddling" would push states away from Moscow.

But Obama also noted what he said were "reports" that Putin was pausing for a moment to reflect on his options over the crisis.

Obama said the European Union and allies like Canada and Japan all believed Russia violated international law.

"President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers, maybe a different set of interpretations. But I do not think that is fooling anybody," Obama said, at a school in Washington DC.

Obama, accused by political foes of showing weak leadership in the crisis, disputed the idea that Putin's dispatch of thousands of troops into Crimea, part of Ukraine, was a sign of strength by the Russian leader.

He said instead that the move was a "reflection that countries near Russia have deep concerns and suspicions about this kind of meddling."

"If anything, it will push many countries further away from Russia."

Putin broke over a week of silence after the overthrow of president Viktor Yanukovych to denounce the changeover of power in Kiev as an "anti-constitutional take-over" and armed seizure of power.

Rather than choosing an address to the nation for the landmark comments as many expected, Putin instead held a briefing for Kremlin reporters at his out-of-town residence of Novo-Ogaryovo that was broadcast live on state television.

He denied that Russian forces were operating in Crimea, saying that only "local forces of self-defense" were surrounding Ukrainian military bases in the region.

Asked if Russian forces took part in operations in Crimea he said, "No, they did not participate," adding with a characteristic smirk: "There are lots of uniforms that look similar."

Ukraine's new authorities have said that several thousand Russian troops have poured into Crimea over the last days, in claims backed by Western officials.

However Putin portrayed the events that have seen armed men in unmarked uniforms seize several Ukrainian army bases in Crimea as an uprising by locals worried about the new authorities in Kiev.

Asked why the men are so well-equipped, Putin said that protesters in Kiev who deposed Yanukovych were also well equipped and worked "like clockwork".

"They worked... like special forces," he said. "Why should they not work as well in Crimea?"

"The Crimeans are very worried. For this reason they formed committees of self-defense and have taken all armed forces under control.

"Thank God that this was done without a single shot and everything is in the hands of the Crimean people."

Putin justified the actions of the armed pro-Russia groups by saying that largely Russian-speaking Crimea was worried by an influx of Ukrainian nationalists.

"We saw that the militants from nationalist organizations are flocking to the Crimea," Putin said.

Putin, who on Saturday won approval from Russia's upper house of parliament to send troops into Ukraine due to the stand-off in Crimea, said there was currently no need for military action -- but Moscow reserved the right to do so.

"Regarding sending troops: so far there is no such necessity, but there is such a possibility," he said.

"We reserve the right to use all means to protect" Russian and Ukrainian citizens in Ukraine, he said, describing the sending of troops as the "last resort, simply the last".

Putin pointed to an appeal by Yanukovych -- whom Russia still formally recognizes as president -- for military action that Moscow's ambassador had brandished at the United Nations on Monday.

"We have the appeal by the legitimate president. This is a humanitarian mission," Putin said.

"We act legitimately. If I decided to take the decision to use armed forces, it will be legitimate."

Putin offered no indication that Russia would recognize the new authorities in Kiev led by interim president Oleksandr Turchynov who plan presidential elections in May.

"There can only be one assessment of what happened in Kiev and Ukraine as a whole: this was an anti-constitutional take-over and armed seizure of power," he said.

Putin also accused Western countries of meddling with Ukraine in an unpredictable experiment to create democracy in a former Soviet state.

"I sometimes have the idea that some kind of lab workers are sitting in America and doing experiments, like on rats, without understanding the consequences of what they are doing."

He expressed concern over what kind of leader could emerge in Ukraine after the elections.

"Some kind of nationalist thug could pop up like a jack-in-a-box, a semi-fascist element."

Putin later said that Yanukovych remained its only legitimate leader despite fleeing to Russia but conceded he lacked any political future.

"I think he has no political future -- I told him that. As for playing a role in his fate, we did that purely from humanitarian reasons," Putin said of Yanukovych, who took refuge in southern Russia after crossing from Ukraine in a way that has not been made public.

Putin said Russia viewed Yanukovych as legally Ukraine's president.

"The legitimate president, purely legally, is undoubtedly Yanukovych," Putin said.

Crucially, Putin said this meant Russian intervention in Ukraine would be justified because Moscow had received a request for protection of its citizens from Yanukovych.

"We have a direct request from the acting and legitimate -- as I have already said -- president Viktor Yanukovych about using armed forces to protect the lives, health and freedom of Ukrainian citizens," Putin said.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin showed the letter dated March 1 at Security Council talks on Monday.

Putin spoke scornfully of his erstwhile ally Yanukovych, who drew his supporters from the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine and in November agreed to scrap a deal with the European Union under pressure from Russia.

"Do you sympathize with him?" one journalist asked.

"No, I have completely different feelings," Putin said.

But he said he believed Yanukovych had risked being killed by protesters when he fled Kiev late last month.

"Death is the easiest (way) to get rid of a legitimate president. That would have happened. I think they would have just killed him," Putin said.

Yanukovych said he fled Ukraine after he and his family received death threats and his car was shot at as he drove out of Kiev.

Putin said that Yanukovych had essentially handed over his powers on February 21 by signing agreements with the opposition leaders last month, counter-signed by international mediators.

He "practically gave up all his powers anyway. And I think he -- and I told him this -- had no chances of being re-elected," Putin said.

He said he understood peaceful protesters against Yanukovych: "Of course people wanted changes."

Asked about a rumor reported in Ukrainian media on Tuesday that Yanukovych had died from a heart attack, Putin denied it.

"After he came to Russia, I saw him once, that was literally two days ago. He was alive and healthy. He will catch a cold yet -- at the funerals of those who spread that information," Putin added with characteristic black humor.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Tuesday that his government had made the first "timid" contacts with Russian leaders aimed at resolving the crisis in his ex-Soviet state.

There was no immediate response from Russia to Yatsenyuk's comments and the Ukranian premier himself stood firmly behind his government's decision to distance itself from Moscow's rule.

But the contacts came in the midst of a visit to Kiev by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and appeared to reflect combined efforts by Washington and its European allies to prevent an all-out confrontation from flaring up on Europe's eastern edge.

"So far, (the talks) have been rather timid. But the first steps have been made," Yatsenyuk said in a statement issued after he and interim president Oleksandr Turchynov met Kerry during the U.S. diplomat's first visit to Ukraine since the political crisis first erupted in November.

Yatsenyuk also reaffirmed his government's commitment to signing a key EU trade deal that Yanukovych rejected in November in favor of closer ties with Kiev's historic masters in Moscow.

"And at the highest level, I have no partner there. There is no president there," he said in reference to Turchynov -- an interim leader approved by Ukraine's parliament and recognized both by EU nations and the United States.

Yatsenyuk said the consultations with Moscow mainly concerned the status of a $15-billion loan package that Putin promised to Yanukovych in December as a reward for his decision to put the EU deal on hold.

"We would like to understand Russia's position about the signed agreement on extending a number of financial instruments to Ukraine, and on extending credits to Ukraine," Yatsenyuk said.

He said Kiev specifically wanted to know whether Moscow still intended to provide the next $2.0-billion tranche of the $15-billion bailout as promised.

"We would like to hear a firm answer from the Russian Federation -- is Russia going to honor the obligations that it assumed several months ago?"

He added that Ukraine expected "Russia to realize its responsibility for destabilizing the security situation in Europe, and acknowledge that Ukraine is an independent state."

The December deal also saw Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom promise to slash by a third the price it charges Ukraine for its natural gas shipments.

Gazprom's chief Alexei Miller said on Tuesday that the firm would end its discount in April and instead offer Ukraine a loan of up to $3.0 billion. The energy giant claims Ukraine owes it $1.55 billion for unpaid gas.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in Brussels that the 28-nation bloc was ready to help Kiev cover its arrears to Gazprom as part of an aid package reportedly worth more than one billion euros.

Yatsenyuk stressed in his statement that the debt had been incurred "by the previous government and the previous president".

Kerry had arrived in Kiev Tuesday for talks with Ukraine's new interim government.

His visit came as the United States said it would provide $1 billion to financially-stricken Ukraine as part of an international loan.

Kerry accused Russia of looking for a "pretext" to invade Ukraine after taking de-facto control of Crimea.

"I think that it is clear that Russia has been working hard to create a pretext for being able to invade further," Kerry told reporters after meeting Ukraine's new Western-backed interim leadership in Kiev.

With the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea under near complete control by pro-Russian forces, U.S. officials said Moscow could face sanctions within days.

"I think there will be movement on sanctions very likely later in this week and there is a whole spectrum of sanctions," one official travelling with Kerry said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials told journalists travelling with Kerry Washington would provide much-needed financial aid to the new government.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement Tuesday the government was "working with Congress and the government of Ukraine to provide $1 billion in loan guarantees, the proceeds of which will be aimed at protecting the most vulnerable Ukrainian households from the impact of the needed economic adjustment."

"At the same time, the U.S. is moving very quickly to provide technical expertise to help the national bank of Ukraine and the finance ministry address their most pressing challenges," an official travelling with Kerry said.

Also on Tuesday, Ukraine's opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko called Tuesday for economic sanctions to be imposed on Russia, particularly if "the escalation of violence continues".

"I ask the West to intervene in a decisive fashion on the diplomatic front to help Ukraine because my country is too weak in the face of Russia," she said in an interview with Italy's SKY TG24 television.

"Direct dialogue is impossible after the military aggression suffered by Ukraine," Tymoshenko said, calling on the United Nations and the world's leaders to "continue their mediation efforts and negotiations with the Kremlin".

"Economic sanctions must be imposed on Moscow, particularly if the escalation of violence continues," she said.

The 53-year-old, who was jailed after losing a 2010 presidential poll and released last month amid anti-government unrest, said she was "convinced that the United States, Britain and the EU will make sure the Budapest treaty is upheld".

Britain, Russia and the United States, along with newly independent Ukraine, signed the so-called Budapest Memorandum in 1994 and pledged to respect the former Soviet republic's sovereignty and existing borders.

Western powers have been wrestling with how to respond to Russia's threat to use force against Ukraine, where Yanukovych was driven from power following three months of protests that culminated in days of carnage.

Washington has suspended military cooperation with Moscow, and the Kremlin has responded to U.S. warnings, saying sanctions against Russia "would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States".

EU foreign ministers warned Moscow on Monday to de-escalate or risk sanctions, including the suspension of long-running talks on easing EU visa requirements for Russian citizens. EU leaders are meeting to discuss the crisis on Thursday.

"The revolution is not over. We are still striving and big changes still have to take place," Tymoshenko said.

Tuesday's development come as a U.N. envoy was en route to Crimea to assess the situation in the region, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

The U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson has asked Robert Serry "to travel to Crimea to take stock and evaluate the situation there," Nesirky said.

"He is on his way and should arrive shortly," he said.

Serry had cancelled a scheduled trip to Crimea on Saturday for logistical reasons, according to the United Nations.

Eliasson, for his part, was in Kiev where he met Tuesday with the transitional authorities, including the president, the prime minister and the foreign minister, Nesirky said.