Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, President Barack Obama on Wednesday condemned Russia's "might makes right" actions in Ukraine and warned that the world must coordinate action against threats ranging from Ebola to ISIS. "There is a pervasive unease in our world—a sense that the very forces that have brought us together have created new dangers, and made it difficult for any single nation to insulate itself from global forces," Obama said. "As we gather here, an outbreak of Ebola overwhelms public health systems in West Africa and threatens to move rapidly across borders. Russian aggression in Europe recalls the days when large nations trampled small ones in pursuit of territorial ambition. The brutality of terrorists in Syria and Iraq forces us to look into the heart of darkness," he added.



President Barack Obama speaks at the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 24, 2014. Getty Images

Obama criticized what he described as Moscow's outlook as "a vision of the world in which might makes right—a world in which one nation's borders can be redrawn by another." He called upon other countries to be on "the right side of history" in dealing with Russia's international actions.

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The president said the current ceasefire in Ukraine offers an opening to peace, and the U.S. will lift its sanctions if Russia allows this state of affairs to persist. Obama addressed criticism that America is hypocritical about fighting aggression abroad in light of police action and riots in Ferguson, Missouri this summer.

"Yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear," he said. "But we welcome the scrutiny of the world."