ARKHANGELSK, March 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin noted the correct wording, under which the issues of Ukraine and Crimea had nothing in common in international relations.

The Russian leader thus responded to a request by Arctic forum moderator and CNBC anchor Geoff Cutmore to comment on the situation in international relations.

"I would like to thank you for that, since you raised this point, you said that the problem of Ukraine and Crimea existed. You, as it were, differentiated between Crimea and Ukraine and this is correct," Putin told the TV anchor as the auditorium loudly applauded.

The Russian leader was ironical that the question about the situation around Ukraine and the Russian-US relations was voiced at the Arctic forum.

"So I knew that it would end up like this," he said with a smile.

The Russian president added that he wouldn’t like "the problems of bilateral Russian-American relations," to be imposed on the positive sentiment developing around the discussion of Arctic issues.

"But out of respect for you, Geoff, out of respect for your company CNBC, which surely gave you such instructions, I simply have to respond to your request," Putin said, addressing the discussion’s moderator.