there is no case to be made whatsoever after all, crimea was part of russia until 1954 and nikita kruschev made a birthday present of to his native ukraine. if putin holds where he is, deescalates in terms of not making provocative moves towards others, then there might be other things over time to work out. in any event russia is going to pay a price for having broken the budapest declaration of 1994 under which ukraine gave up nuclear weapons. he'll already have a problem. >> we'll take a short break. and when we come back we'll talk about the possibility of accidental war in europe. this is "inside story." >> welcome back to "inside story." i'm ray suarez. as the g-7 held a crisis meeting in the ukraine on monday on the sidelines top diplomats are still talking. foreign minister lavrov met with secretary of state john kerry. kerry expressed strong concern about russian troop build up on the moscow border. if we had talked in december and somebody suggested that crimea would not even part of ukraine any more in march, probably a lot of people around the table would have said, oh, come on

a lot of people believe what nikita kruschev did in 1954 was a mistake. then is went a big deal because it was the soviet union. thea lot of people here said thy never wanted to be part of ukraine any way. they always felt close for russia. and of course this is home to the russian black sea fleet. you have russians from russia who serve in the military here as well. they have even been closer to russia. so i don't think they're steering a course between kiev and here. a lot of people talk with alarm about kiev. they've been watching russian television, telling them that fascists are coming down to attack them here. they say they're happy the russian forces are here to protect them. i think a pro-russian sentiment with flags flying. they were giving out the russian anthem today outside of city hall. >> phil ittner outside of the capitol of kiev. phil, there have been brave words of defiance from elected officials. but are people starting to feel like crimea has slipped through their fingers, that this is over? >> well, as far as crimea is concerned i thin

there is no case to be made whatsoever after all, crimea was part of russia until 1954 and nikita kruschev made a birthday present of to his native ukraine. if putin holds where he is, deescalates in terms of not making provocative moves towards others, then there might be other things over time to work out. in any event russia is going to pay a price for having broken the budapest declaration of 1994 under which ukraine gave up nuclear weapons. he'll already have a problem. >> we'll take a short break. and when we come back we'll talk about the possibility of accidental war in europe. this is "inside story." >> al jazeera america presents a global finacial powerhouse >> the roman catholic church, they have an enormous amount of power >> accusations of corruption... >> there is a portion of the budget that takes care of all the clerical abuse issues. >> now we follow the money and take you inside the vatican's financial empire. >> when it comes to money, this is one of the sloppiest organizations on earth... >> al jazeera america presents... holy money only on al jazeera america >> welcome

in 1954 the peninsula on the black sea was given to ukraine by then ussr leader nikita kruschev. and remained part of the country when ukraine gained its independence from moscow in 1991. tuesday the they warned crimea not to go forward on a vote on sunday whether or not to become part of russia. moment yatsenyuk will meet with president obama at the hous whie house on wednesday. >> i ask you according to the request of the american side to invite the secretary of state kerry who wants to come to russia to continue their consultations. >> he agreed previously but calling back on saturday and told me he would like to postpone the trip, as he said. >> the state department had a totally different view of proposed meeting. the spokeswoman said russia has not shown seriousness. russia would first need to meet u.s. demands that it recognized the new ukrainian government, stop military maneuvers and annexation attempts of crimea. foreign minister lavrov said russian powers want an agreement on the conflict in ukraine. >> we're not passively taking advance of our colleagues. we've prepar

president nikita kruschev loved the ukraine, and with the ussr never stronger handing over the peninsula to reward his favorite republic of little importance. it took 15 minutes of discussion. ukrainian and russian flags flying together. the gift was delivered in a spirit of friendship and trust as the people of the crimea, 70% ethnic russians, celebrated. and who would have believed that in less than 40 years the old soviet union would have been swept away, and the flag that once flew over land from eastern europe to the shores of the pacific have now become a $10 tourist souvenir. the history and heritage of the former soviet union is now found on cheap t-shirts but there is a constituency who misses life back in the ussr. >> i think we can understand the feelings of those people who are very nostalgic over the soviet time, elderly people, and this is the backbone of the current support of crimea. it's not youngsters, but old people with their idea of lost feeling of nation which is part and parcel. [♪ singing ] >> reporter: people like alexander and his wife remember the summer songs

>> by nikita kruschev, my great grandfather. but who decides what is rightfully russian. in the baltic states there are a lot of russian speakers. what if he decides in latvia, the famous and popular resort by the russians, what if he decides to take that over because it's also on the baltic sea. co-have another port. they should be concerned. i still don't think that putin is going to go in that direction, but everybody should be sounding the alarm. >> what is the next step in your mind for the e.u. and the united states. >> i think sanctions are very important. i think trying to reduce the oil and gas dependence on russia is very important. trying to figure out ways to get outside of russia, all the pipelines that go into europe. this is really because that's what his empire is based on. it's a an industrial complex very much like the soviet state was in the 1970's. because it wa of that it collapn 1991, there was no diversity in the economy and putin's economy is not diversified today. >> will vladimir putin listen to germany's chancellor, angela merkel. germany is rea

also joining us the granddaughter of nikita kruschev. thanks to both of you for coming in.mir, let me get your quick reaction to that report we just had on the former secretary of state hillary clinton making this comparison to what putin has authorized in ukraine and crimea to what hitler authorized before leading up to world war ii. go ahead, vladimir. >> well, it's regrettable. i had hillary clinton on my show in moscow and i found her to be a very intelligent person. i think it was a slip of the tongue because what hitler did, this isn't poland, this is czechoslovakia, he actually invaded. the nazi army marched in, and this is not something that putin has done. he's asked for permission to do that. so i think frankly the comparison is a lame one, although in both cases, yes, hitler spoke about the way ethnic germans were mistreated and putin has spoken about the way ethnic russians are mistreated. but there's a big difference between invading a country and talking about those things. so i don't think it's really a good comparison. >> i'm going to bring nina in a moment.

better fit administratively and so he says, the president who headed that country, the story kruschev n nikita reading crimea to ukraine as a gift is false. ight after stalin's death, kruschev hardly had the authority to make such unilateral decisions. he was vying for power inside his own country and the actual act of transferring crime wra to ukraine was signed by the head of what was called the presidium , not kruschev. so the president of russia maybe didn't read history, i don't know, but the point was the roffer ukraine came in 1954. and it was a consequential date and has remained in ukraine as part of that region for the entire second half of the 20th century and the first decade of this semplery. i thought it was important to put that -- of this century. i thought it was important to put that on the record. i also want to say as a member of congress, i'm so very, very proud of the work that's been done by the legal authority in ukraine that is holding that nation together. they are our counterpart. they are a legislative branch of their government, just as we are here, and we for many