BERLIN (Reuters) - Russia's stance on an OSCE mission in Ukraine was the only encouraging signal to come out of a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, a German government spokesman said.
Russia agreed on Friday with the 56 other members of the OSCE rights and security group to send a monitoring mission to Ukraine, but said the group had no mandate in Crimea, which Moscow annexed after voters on the Black Sea peninsula chose to join Russia in a referendum dismissed by Western states as a sham.