President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin went to great lengths to portray their phone call Friday as evidence the two leaders were working together to stabilize the situation in Ukraine.
Absent were the accusations they traded the past two months over the future of the former Soviet republic.
The Obama administration continues to dismiss the notion of a new Cold War with Russia. But the louder their protests, the more apparent the chill has become.
It was on display Saturday in widely differing characterizations of a telephone conversation between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, after news broke that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych left the capital because of what he described as a "coup."
Kerry said the two agreed on a need to resolve the political tumult in Ukraine without violence, and that he expressed to Lavrov the importance of both countries encouraging Ukraine to move toward constitutional change, according to the State Department.
But Lavrov said he raised concerns about "illegal extremist groups" refusing to surrender arms and reiterated the conversation between their respective leaders. "Putin called on Obama to use all opportunities to curb the radicals' illegal actions and settle the situation by peaceful means," according to a state-run ITAR-TASS report, which was tweeted by Russia's Foreign Ministry.
In December, Kerry snubbed Ukraine after it rejected an agreement to increase trade with Europe. Instead he visited Moldova, which did sign the agreement.
There, Kerry insisted the United States was not engaged in a bidding war with Russia over Ukraine or any of the former Soviet republics.