Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

With the unrest in Ukraine, President Obama finds himself at odds again with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

In recent days, his administration has expressed its frustration with Syria blowing a deadline to turn over its chemical weapons, and has stated bluntly that the reputation of Russia —Syria's chief ally — is at stake if Bashar Assad's regime doesn't quickly get in line.

But speaking to reporters during his visit to Mexico on Wednesday, Obama downplayed a U.S.-Russian competition in those two countries, while highlighting that Russia has supported the governments in Syria and Ukraine when "the people obviously have a very different view and vision for their country."

The common thread in both the three-year-old civil war in Syria and the more recent strife in Ukraine, Obama said, is a desire by people there for free speech, the right peacefully to assemble, and have their political views reflected in free and fair elections.

"Now, Mr. Putin has a different view on many of those issues, and I don't think that there's any secret on that," Obama said. "And our approach as the United States is not to see these as some Cold War chessboard in which we're in competition with Russia."

The recent political violence in Ukraine is the worst the ex-Soviet republic has faced since becoming an independent nation in 1991.

The latest unrest flared after President Viktor Yanukovych refused on Tuesday to allow a vote on a law that would have reinstated limits on his powers.

The bigger point of contention centers on tensions over Yanukovych leaning toward a closer alliance with Russia, which is ready to resume providing loans to help the country's ailing economy. The protesters want the government to form an alliance with the European Union instead.

With Syria, the Russians blocked action by the United Nations Security Council against the Assad regime for deploying chemical weapons on the Syrian opposition in an internecine war that has now killed 140,000.