RUSSIA continues to supply the rebels in the civil strife across Eastern Ukraine while the West, especially the greedy hypocrites of Western Europe, act like Nero fiddling while Rome burned. The new sanctions imposed by the Obama administration are nothing but pathetic, weak and embarrassing hissy fit. This is turning out just as I feared, a repeat of Western politicians cowed by a dictator, blinded by their greed to the naked aggression committed against a weaker neighbor who foolishly believed treaties with allies meant something. This might as well be 1938 and putin is acting just like hitler and Western heads of state compete for the roll of best ass-kissing Chamberlain, Daladier and quisling. The U.S., E.U., and the rest of the First World industrial nations could stop Russia and their rebels in Eastern Ukraine economically. Impose sanctions against all Russian politicians, military officials and business people involved in the seizure of Ukrainian Crimea and with the rebels in Eastern Ukraine, freeze all their assets and holdings, ban them from travel anywhere in the West. Ban Aeroflot flights. Close Russian bank branches outside Russia. Yes, they will do the same to us, but they need us for their economic survival more than we need them. Europe should be (should have been) working with the government of Libya to stabilize the nation with security assistance and the development of democratic institutions allowing for a rapid expansion of gas and oil exports to eliminate dependence on gazprom. We do not have to accept putin's recreation of the soviet union. We do not have to abandon Ukraine and the Baltics to suffer under Russian military aggression. We can stop this with strict economic sanctions that will force putin and his cabal of oligarchs to realize their aggression against Ukraine just isn't worth the cost to their nation and to their political and economic survival. OH SORRY, I was obviously daydreaming, and putin has nothing to worry about as long as Obama, Merkel, Hollande, Cameron, Renzi, Harper and all the other "leaders" of the West are in office. From +Foreign Policy
The United States will freeze the assets of seven Ukrainian
separatist leaders after discovering new evidence that Moscow is sending tanks
and military equipment to pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine. Washington
is also stepping up negotiations with Western allies to impose tougher
sanctions on Russia's military, financial, and technology sectors, a senior
U.S. official told reporters on Friday.
The escalation of Moscow's hand in the simmering political crisis comes as the U.S. turns its attention to Iraq's civil conflict between Al Qaeda-linked insurgents and the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad. Now Secretary of State John Kerry will have to juggle both geopolitical headaches. On Thursday, President Barack Obama said he is sending Kerry to the Middle East to address the Iraq situation. The senior U.S. official noted that Kerry would also be making calls to allies regarding sanctions against Russia. Reluctance from European countries whose economies are more closely linked to Moscow's have caused previous efforts to impose multilateral sanctions against broad sectors of Russia's economy to fail.
"We have been in active conversations with our E.U. partners on what we call ‘scalpel sanctions,' which would be targeted primarily in financial, defense, and technology sectors," said the U.S. official. "This has been ongoing for some time but has intensified over the last week as we've seen Russian materiel move into Ukraine."
On Friday, the Ukrainian government told Western allies that 10 additional tanks, fuel trucks, and other vehicles crossed the border into Ukraine in the last 24 hours. The U.S. official said Washington independently confirmed that additional Russian tanks departed from a deployment site in southwest Russia on Thursday.
The official implored Russia to implement a peace plan aimed at de-escalating the crisis and granting greater autonomy to Ukraine's restive enclaves proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in recent weeks.
"If [Russia's] destabilization of Ukraine does not abate and it does not support this peace plan, there will be more costs. More costs in the form of isolation and sanctions," the official said.
The new sanctions target Ukrainian separatist leaders, including: Vyachelsav Ponomaryov, who declared himself mayor of Slavyansk after leading an attack on the mayor's office in April; Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, which has ransacked government buildings across eastern Ukraine; and Andrey Purgin, a leader of a council that runs the separatist government in Donetsk. The U.S. will freeze any of their assets its jurisdiction (likely not many).
U.S. Approves New Sanctions as Russian Tanks Roll Into Ukraine
The escalation of Moscow's hand in the simmering political crisis comes as the U.S. turns its attention to Iraq's civil conflict between Al Qaeda-linked insurgents and the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad. Now Secretary of State John Kerry will have to juggle both geopolitical headaches. On Thursday, President Barack Obama said he is sending Kerry to the Middle East to address the Iraq situation. The senior U.S. official noted that Kerry would also be making calls to allies regarding sanctions against Russia. Reluctance from European countries whose economies are more closely linked to Moscow's have caused previous efforts to impose multilateral sanctions against broad sectors of Russia's economy to fail.
"We have been in active conversations with our E.U. partners on what we call ‘scalpel sanctions,' which would be targeted primarily in financial, defense, and technology sectors," said the U.S. official. "This has been ongoing for some time but has intensified over the last week as we've seen Russian materiel move into Ukraine."
On Friday, the Ukrainian government told Western allies that 10 additional tanks, fuel trucks, and other vehicles crossed the border into Ukraine in the last 24 hours. The U.S. official said Washington independently confirmed that additional Russian tanks departed from a deployment site in southwest Russia on Thursday.
The official implored Russia to implement a peace plan aimed at de-escalating the crisis and granting greater autonomy to Ukraine's restive enclaves proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in recent weeks.
"If [Russia's] destabilization of Ukraine does not abate and it does not support this peace plan, there will be more costs. More costs in the form of isolation and sanctions," the official said.
The new sanctions target Ukrainian separatist leaders, including: Vyachelsav Ponomaryov, who declared himself mayor of Slavyansk after leading an attack on the mayor's office in April; Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, which has ransacked government buildings across eastern Ukraine; and Andrey Purgin, a leader of a council that runs the separatist government in Donetsk. The U.S. will freeze any of their assets its jurisdiction (likely not many).
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