The White House on Friday announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had telephoned President Obama to discuss a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The administration said Obama had asked Putin to put a "concrete response in writing."

The Kremlin, of course, had a slightly different take on the phone call, saying that Putin had drawn Obama's attention to the "continued rampage of extremists who are committing acts of intimidation towards peaceful residents, government authorities, and law enforcement agencies in various regions and in Kiev with impunity."

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.