Putin orders troops to return to bases from exercises outside Ukraine

The Kremlin announced Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin had ordered troops engaged in exercises outside Ukraine to return to their bases as US Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Kiev for talks with the interim Ukraine government. In crisis talks in the White House overnight, the US suspended military relations with Russia and discussed economic and other sanctions in view of Moscow’s military takeover of Crimea. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Monday that the price of halting the Russian troop deployment in Crimea would be the restoration of the deal ousted president Viktor Yanukovych signed with the opposition on Feb. 22.