Russia 'Does Not Want New Cold War,' Warns against Hasty Action on Ukraine

Russia does not want a new Cold War, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on Friday, as tensions rose over Russian-backed demands by Crimea to secede from Ukraine.

Dmitry Peskov was asked on a chat show on state television whether he could foresee a return to the clash of ideologies that polarized the world between 1945 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

"I would not want there to be," he said. "I believe this is not the case. I believe it has not started. And I would like to believe that it will not start."

Peskov, Putin's official mouthpiece, was speaking after both houses of Russia's parliament endorsed calls by Crimean lawmakers for their peninsula to sever ties with Ukraine and join Russia.

His comments also came after Russia's state-run gas giant Gazprom ratcheted up the pressure on Kiev, saying it would cut off supplies if a $1.89 billion gas bill is not paid, in a move widely interpreted as having Kremlin backing.

The West has stood behind Ukraine's new government, formed after the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych last month who had been backed by Russia, and is threatening Moscow with sanctions in the worst East-West clash in over two decades.

"Despite the fact that there are deep differences... between Russia, European countries and the United States, there is... hope that as a result of dialogue we succeed in grasping points of agreement," said Peskov.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry against Washington taking hasty action or imposing sanctions over Ukraine, Russia's foreign ministry said Friday.

In a telephone call, the two men followed up on their talks in Paris and Rome that had failed to lead to an agreement on how to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.

The two diplomatic chiefs "agreed to continue looking at the problems of the sharp political crisis that has seized this country," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.

"Lavrov warned against hasty and unthought-through steps capable of causing harm to Russian-U.S. relations, especially sanctions that will inevitably have a boomerang effect against the U.S. itself," it added.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday talked by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin for an hour about Ukraine, including a visa ban and possible further sanctions against Russian officials, the White House said.

Russia stood firm in its standoff with the West over Ukraine's flashpoint peninsula of Crimea despite sanctions over the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.

The heads of Russia's two houses of parliament indicated Putin's resolve by announcing that Moscow intended to respect Crimean lawmakers' decision to renounce ties with Ukraine and stage a March 16 referendum on switching over to Kremlin rule.

"We will respect the historic choice of the people of Crimea," said lower house speaker Sergei Naryshkin. "We support the free and democratic choice of the population of Crimea."

His upper house counterpart Valentina Matviyenko added that "should the people of Crimea decide to join Russia in a referendum, we... will unquestionably back this choice."

The escalating threat of the ex-Soviet nation of 46 million splintering between its pro-European west and more Russified southeast prompted Obama to place the hour-long call to Putin that both sides described as tough.

The White House said Obama "emphasized that Russia's actions are in violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which has led us to take several steps in response, in coordination with our European partners."

The Kremlin for its part said Putin tried to calm tensions by stressing that U.S.-Russian relations "should not be sacrificed due to disagreements over individual -- albeit extremely significant -- international problems."

The European Union earlier firmed its resolve to impose stiff sanctions on Russia while also vowing to sign an historic trade pact aimed at pulling Kiev out of Moscow's orbit before Ukraine holds snap presidential polls on May 25.

Yet with Russian forces in effective control of Crimea -- a predominantly ethnic Russian peninsula roughly the size of Belgium and base of the Kremlin's Black Sea Fleet -- the threat of Ukraine's division seemed more real than at any point since Putin won parliamentary approval to use force against his western neighbor.

Western allies have been grappling with a response to Putin's seeming ambition to recreate vestiges of the Russian empire without regard to the damage this does to Moscow's foreign relations or instability it creates.

Moscow argues it needs to defend ethnic Russians from coming under attack from ultra-nationalists who have backing from the new pro-EU team in Kiev.

Putin has previously denounced the interim leaders' rise to power as an "unconstitutional coup".

The tensions in Ukraine intensified still further when the city council of Sevastopol that houses the Kremlin's Black Sea Fleet also resolved to become "a subject of the Russian Federation" with immediate effect.

The new leaders in Kiev -- swept to power on the back of three months of protests against a Kremlin-backed regime that left 100 people dead -- immediately took steps to disband Crimea's parliament.

Ukraine's interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk also appealed for EU powers and the United States to rise to his nation's defense.

"I would like to say to Mr Putin: Tear down this wall, the wall of intimidation, of military aggression," Yatsenyuk said in an echo of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's 1987 address at the Berlin Wall.

Washington announced visa bans on targeted Russians and Ukrainians in the latest in a series of moves by the U.S. administration to punish Moscow for what the White House denounced as "Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

Obama also authorized freezing the assets of officials involved in ordering Russia's military maneuvers in Crimea.

In a morning phone call to Defense Minister Igor Tenyukh, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel thanked his Ukrainian counterpart Friday for what he said was the admirable restraint the country's armed forces have shown in a tense stand-off with Russia.

Hagel reiterated Washington's strong support for Ukraine's sovereignty, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.

"He praised the performance and the restraint of the Ukrainian armed forces, who have not allowed the situation to escalate," Kirby told reporters.

Hagel "also stressed the firm commitment of the United States to support the Ukrainian people" and "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

The Pentagon also confirmed reports that Russia has deployed more forces to the Crimean peninsula over the past week.

Precise numbers were unclear but "clearly, they have thousands of soldiers in the Crimea," Kirby said, citing estimates of up to 20,000 personnel.

But he did not say if the estimate includes a Russian naval contingent already stationed in Crimea before the crisis, saying the actions taken by the troops are more important than raw numbers.

The Russian deployment is "a clear violation" Russia's international obligations, including a basing agreement with Ukraine, he added.

European leaders -- split between hawkish eastern European states many of which were under Kremlin's zone of influence during the Cold War and big western European powers that want to limit the damage to their economic relations with Russia -- renewed a commitment to sign an EU association accord with Ukraine by May.

Ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's decision to ditch that pact in November in favor of closer ties with Russia sparked the initial wave of protests that led to his regime's downfall and the rise of the new pro-EU government.

The EU agreed after six hours of tense discussions to suspend visa and economic talks with Russia -- a blow for Moscow's years-long efforts to win open European travel rights.

And they adopted a tough statement demanding Russia enter into negotiations in the next few days to produce "results" on cooling the crisis -- threatening travel bans and asset freezes along with the cancellation of an EU-Russia summit in June if not.

EU leaders also froze the assets of Yanukovych -- now living in Russia -- and his prime minister Mykola Azarov along with 16 other former ministers.

Interpol said Friday it was considering a Ukrainian government request to issue an arrest warrant for the deposed head of state.

The epicenter of the crisis has been Crimea, a rugged Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia in the 18th century and annexed to Ukraine by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as a "gift" in 1954.

Obama is pushing terms of a diplomatic solution that would see Russia call back troops to their barracks and accept international observers from the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

But pro-Kremlin gunmen on Thursday stopped a team of 40 military OSCE observers from entering Crimea. The military team was expected to try again on Friday.

Violent protests have also broken out in cities in mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine such as Donetsk that have been the strongholds of support.

The Donetsk regional administration building has been raided repeatedly by both pro-Moscow and pro-Kiev crowds. It flew the Ukrainian flag on Friday morning after the Russian tricolor had been put up the day before.

Meanwhile in central Moscow, over 65,000 people waving Russian flags and banners attended a rally in a show of solidarity with pro-Russian authorities in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, police said.

The rally, entitled "We are together", which began with Russian pop star Oleg Gazmanov singing patriotic songs, took place just outside the walls of the Kremlin.

Crimean parliament speaker Vladimir Konstantinov, who earlier met top lawmakers in Moscow, offered greetings "from Crimea" as he took to the stage amid cheers.

"Yesterday we took a historic decision," he said, referring to a request by the autonomous republic's parliament to join Russia, a move they want voters to ratify in a March 16 referendum.

"We know that Russia will never abandon us. The Russian people will always be with us," the leather-jacketed politician said to applause and shouts of "Well done!" from the crowd.

"On March 16, all Crimeans, all Russians must come out and say just three words: Sevastopol, Crimea, Russia," Konstantinov said, referring to Russia's military base in the Crimean Black Sea port of Sevastopol.

Television footage showed people waving Russian flags and holding printed placards with slogans including "Crimea, we are with you!" and "We believe Putin!"

Such rallies in support of Kremlin policies are carefully orchestrated by the authorities. State employees are pressured to take part and are often bussed in.

Bloggers circulated an alleged map of the concert site that showed zones allocated to different groups, including some set aside for municipal workers.

"We are supporting Crimea with our souls," one middle-aged woman told Russia 24 state television, which carried the rally live.

"We will not accept Bandera on their territory," said a young man waving a Russian flag, referring to wartime Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.

"I have a lot of relatives in Ukraine and so I want Ukraine to join the rest of Russia," another man said.

Rights activists opposed to intervention in Ukraine were set to hold a sanctioned rally in central Moscow later in the day. Authorities have limited attendance to a maximum of 500 participants.