The Arab Spring came as a surprise for many following the Middle East. One did not expect that a people that had lived under oppression and tyranny for decades, would awaken and rise from the ashes of oppression and suppression. Moreover, the people would stand defiantly in the face of the tyrants that had punished them with the worst of the punishments.
Russian state-run news agency TASS on November 15 quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Putin spoke by phone with separatist leaders Aleksandr Zakharchenko of the Donetsk region and Igor Plotnitsky of Luhansk.