.
Kerry has been steadily moving toward meeting all of Putin's demands.
The U.S. is no longer demanding Russia stop occupying Crimea nor is the U.S. demanding Russia negotiate with the Ukraine ( rather than just sending Russian troops into the country of Ukraine without permission). Those demands are so inoperative.
The U.S. does have some replacement demands, they are buried in the quote from Kerry shown below, on the eve of trip to London, to make the new improved U.S. offer of concessions to Russia.
One of the two remaining demands is Russia must: "soften its stance". This is a fairly ambiguous demand, so if the Putin and/or his occupying troops start wearing cushioned insoles in their combat boots this one should be met.
Second, and this one has real teeth, although technically, according to Kerry's statement, this is more of a hope, not a demand, this hope/demand is that Russia: "join ( us) in respecting international law". This certainly could be met by passing a U.N. security council resolution with U.S., U.K. and Russian support that legitimizes armed Russian troops in Ukraine as U.N. monitors ( no longer as illegal occupiers ), Russia would have to recognize Ukrainians borders in a statement on paper, but Putin never really cared about borders or papers, so this is really not that big a hope/demand on Russia ( or so Kerry hopes ).
Let us all hope the 80,000 Russian troops approaching the border between Russian and that portion of eastern Ukraine that borders Russia on both the north and the east, are just there as part of agreed upon theater, for the sole purpose of "encouraging" the Ukrainian government to agree to any plan Kerry negotiates that allows armed Russian troops to "monitor" ( read control ) the Russian speaking regions of Ukraine.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/john-kerr ... le/2545610U.S. Secretary of State Kerry wrote:
serious repercussions for Russia on Monday if last-ditch talks over the weekend to resolve the crisis in Ukraine failed to persuade Moscow to soften its stance.
...
“Our hope is to have Russia join (us) in respecting international law. ...
Putin's responses to Kerry's ever changing verbal demands have been more non-verbal.
The most recent response from Putin was initiated on Wednesday, March 12th, 2014:
