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President Obama orders new round of sanctions on Russia
President Obama orders new round of sanctions on Russia (AP) / 21 March 2014 Obama said the latest penalties were the result of “choices the Russian government has made, choices that have been rejected by the international community.” President Barack Obama on Thursday expanded US economic sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, targeting President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff and 19 other individuals as well as a Russian bank that provides them support. Obama, warning of more costs to come for the Kremlin if the situation worsens, said he also signed an executive order that would allow the US to penalize key sectors of the Russian economy. Officials said Obama could act on that authority if Russian forces press into other areas of Ukraine, an escalation of the crisis in Crimea. The president said the latest penalties were the result of “choices the Russian government has made, choices that have been rejected by the international community.” “Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community,” Obama said, speaking from the South Lawn of the White House. European Union leaders, too, said they would expand the number of people targeted with various sanctions and indicated they would cancel an EU-Russia summit. Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament that if the crisis deepens in Crimea and Ukraine, the EU is prepared to move to economic sanctions on a higher level. Those named in the sanctions Thursday include Sergei Ivanov, Putin’s chief of staff and a longtime associate, as well as Arkady Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, both lifelong Putin friends whose companies have amassed billions of dollars in government contracts. Also sanctioned: Bank Rossiya, a private bank that is owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, who is considered to be Putin’s banker. The U.S. sanctions followed a first round of U.S. economic penalties ordered earlier in the week on 11 people the U.S. said were involved in the dispute in Ukraine. Russia moved its military into Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula three weeks ago and has since formally annexed the strategically important region into its borders. The U.S. has declared Russia’s incursion into Crimea a violation of international law and does not recognize its annexation of the peninsula. Still, U.S. officials privately acknowledge that Russia is unlikely to give up Crimea. Instead, their top priority is keeping Russia from moving into other areas of Ukraine with pro-Russian populations. “The world is watching with grave concern as Russia has positioned its military in a way that could lead to further incursions into southern and eastern Ukraine,” Obama said. Senior administration officials said the individuals targeted by Thursday’s sanctions will have assets frozen in the United States, will be barred from doing any business in the U.S. and will be unable to make transactions in American dollars. The officials said some of those sanctioned are close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin has not been personally targeted by the first two rounds of U.S. sanctions. American sanctions on heads of state are rare, largely reserved for instances where the U.S. is seeking a change in government leadership. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Putin ready to invade Ukraine; Kiev warns of war
Putin ready to invade Ukraine; Kiev warns of war (Reuters) / 2 March 2014 Ukraine asks NATO for defence help, puts troops on alert An armed serviceman stands near a Russian army vehicle outside a Ukrainian border guard post in the Crimean town of Balaclava on March 1, 2014. – Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded and won his parliament’s approval on Saturday to invade Ukraine, where the new government warned of war, put its troops on high alert and appealed to NATO for help. Putin’s open assertion of the right to send troops to a country of 46 million people on the ramparts of central Europe creates the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War. Troops with no insignia on their uniforms but clearly Russian – some in vehicles with Russian number plates – have already seized Crimea, an isolated peninsula in the Black Sea where Moscow has a large military presence in the headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet. Kiev’s new authorities have been powerless to stop them. The United States said Russia was in clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and called on Moscow to withdraw its forces back to bases in Crimea. It also urged the deployment of international monitors to Ukraine. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, leading a government that took power after Moscow’s ally Viktor Yanukovich fled a week ago, said Russian military action “would be the beginning of war and the end of any relations between Ukraine and Russia”. Acting President Oleksander Turchinov ordered troops to be placed on high combat alert. Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya said he had met European and US officials and sent a request to NATO to “examine all possibilities to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine”. The United States will suspend participation in preparatory meetings for a summit of G8 countries in Sochi, Russia, and warned of “greater political and economic isolation”, the White House said in a statement after President Barack Obama and Putin held a 90-minute telephone call. Obama told Putin that if Russia had concerns about ethnic Russians in Ukraine, it should address them peacefully, the White House said. Putin’s move was a direct rebuff to Western leaders who had repeatedly urged Russia not to intervene, including Obama, who just a day earlier had held a televised address to warn Moscow of “costs” if it acted. Putin told Obama that Russia reserved the right to protect its interests and those of Russian speakers in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. ‘Dangerous situation’ The Russian forces solidified their control of Crimea and unrest spread to other parts of Ukraine on Saturday. Pro-Russian demonstrators clashed, sometimes violently, with supporters of Ukraine’s new authorities and raised the Russian flag over government buildings in several cities. “This is probably the most dangerous situation in Europe since the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968,” said a Western official on condition of anonymity. “Realistically, we have to assume the Crimea is in Russian hands. The challenge now is to deter Russia from taking over the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine.” Arseny Yatsenyuk (R), a member of Ukraine’s interim leadership, attends a government meeting in parliament in Kiev on March 1, 2014. – Reuters Putin asked parliament to approve force “in connection with the extraordinary situation in Ukraine, the threat to the lives of citizens of the Russian Federation, our compatriots” and to protect the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. The upper house swiftly delivered a unanimous “yes” vote, shown live on television. Western capitals scrambled for a response. Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power called for the swift deployment of international monitors from the United Nations and the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to Ukraine to help stem the escalating crisis there. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel told his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in a phone call that Moscow’s military intervention risked creating further instability and an escalation “that would threaten European and international security”, the Pentagon said. A US defence official said there had been no change in US military posture or in the alert status of forces. EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton urged Moscow not to send troops. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said this would be “clearly against international law”. Czech President Milos Zeman likened the crisis to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. “Urgent need for de-escalation in Crimea,” tweeted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. “NATO allies continue to coordinate closely.” NATO ambassadors will meet in Brussels on Sunday to discuss the situation, Rasmussen tweeted. “North Atlantic Council will meet tomorrow followed by NATO-Ukraine Commission,” he wrote. Putin said his request for authorisation to use force in Ukraine would last “until the normalisation of the socio-political situation in that country”. His justification – the need to protect Russian citizens – was the same as he used to launch a 2008 invasion of Georgia, where Russian forces seized two breakaway regions and recognised them as independent. In a statement posted online, the Kremlin said that in his phone call with Obama, Putin “underlined that there are real threats to the life and health of Russian citizens and compatriots on Ukrainian territory”. Flags torn down So far there has been no sign of Russian military action in Ukraine outside Crimea, the only part of the country with a Russian ethnic majority, which has often voiced separatist aims. A potentially bigger risk would be conflict spreading to the rest of Ukraine, where the sides could not be easily kept apart. As tension built on Saturday, demonstrations occasionally turned violent in eastern cities, where most people, though ethnically Ukrainian, are Russian speakers and many support Moscow and Yanukovich. People march on the streets with Russian flags in Simferopol, Crimea on March 1, 2014. – Reuters Demonstrators flew Russian flags on government buildings in the cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk. In Kharkiv, scores of people were wounded in clashes when thousands of pro-Russian activists stormed the regional government headquarters and fought pitched battles with a smaller number of supporters of Ukraine’s new authorities. Pro-Russian demonstrators wielded axe handles and chains against those defending the building with plastic shields. In Donetsk, Yanukovich’s home region, lawmakers declared they were seeking a referendum on the region’s status. “We do not recognise the authorities in Kiev, they are not legitimate,” protest leader Pavel Guberev thundered from a podium in Donetsk. Thousands of followers, holding a giant Russian flag and chanting “Russia, Russia” marched to the government headquarters and replaced the Ukrainian flag with Russia’s. Coal miner Gennady Pavlov said he backed Putin’s declaration of the right to intervene. “It is time to put an end to this lawlessness. Russians are our brothers. I support the forces.” “War has arrived” On Kiev’s central Independence Square, where protesters camped out for months against Yanukovich, a World War Two film about Crimea was being shown on a giant screen, when Yuri Lutsenko, a former interior minister, interrupted it to announce Putin’s decree. “War has arrived,” Lutsenko said. Hundreds of Ukrainians descended on the square chanting “Glory to the heroes. Death to the occupiers.” Although there was little doubt that the troops without insignia that have already seized Crimea are Russian, the Kremlin has not yet openly confirmed it. It described Saturday’s authorisation as a threat for future action rather than confirmation that its soldiers are already involved. A Kremlin spokesman said Putin had not yet decided to use force, and still hoped to avoid further escalation. In Crimea itself, the arrival of troops was cheered by the Russian majority. In the coastal town of Balaclava, where Russian-speaking troops in armoured vehicles with black Russian number plates had encircled a small garrison of Ukrainian border guards, families posed for pictures with the soldiers. A wedding party honked its car horns. “I want to live with Russia. I want to join Russia,” said Alla Batura, a petite 71-year-old pensioner who has lived in Sevastopol for 50 years. “They are good lads… They are protecting us, so we feel safe.” But not everyone was reassured. Inna, 21, a clerk in a nearby shop who came out to stare at the armoured personnel carriers, said: “I am in shock. I don’t understand what the hell this is… People say they came here to protect us. Who knows? … All of our (Ukrainian) military are probably out at sea by now.” The rapid pace of events has rattled the new leaders of Ukraine, who took power in a nation on the verge of bankruptcy when Yanukovich fled Kiev last week after his police killed scores of anti-Russian protesters in Kiev. Ukraine’s crisis began in November when Yanukovich, at Moscow’s behest, abandoned a free trade pact with the EU for closer ties with Russia. For many in Ukraine, the prospect of a military conflict chilled the blood. “When a Slav fights another Slav, the result is devastating,” said Natalia Kuharchuk, a Kiev accountant. “God save us.” For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
United States says Iran ‘not open for business’
United States says Iran ‘not open for business’ (AFP) / 5 February 2014 United States warns the growing number of business delegations traveling to Iran that sweeping sanctions remained in place. US officials declared on Tuesday that Iran is “not open for business” and vowed to scrutinise companies heading to the Islamic republic since it entered a temporary nuclear agreement. Testifying before skeptical lawmakers, President Barack Obama’s administration detailed initial sanctions relief to Iran, including the transfer of $550 million in frozen oil revenues as part of a six-month nuclear agreement. But Wendy Sherman, who is spearheading the diplomacy with Tehran, said that the United States was warning the growing number of business delegations traveling to Iran that sweeping sanctions remained in place. “Tehran is not open for business because our sanctions relief is quite temporary, quite limited and quite targeted,” Sherman, the under secretary of state for political affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It doesn’t matter whether the countries are friend or foe — if they evade our sanctions, we will sanction them,” she said. Sherman said that Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius about a major French delegation that is visiting Tehran, telling him that the trip — while from the private sector — was “not helpful” in sending the message that “it is not business as usual.” The delegation from the French employers’ union Medef is the largest from Europe since the November nuclear accord and includes representatives from major companies such as Total, Lafarge and Peugeot. Addressing the delegation, Deputy Oil Minister Ali Majedi encouraged foreign companies to return. David Cohen, the Treasury Department official in charge of the sanctions, acknowledged “a slight uptick” in Iran’s economic indicators but said that the United States would “vigorously” enforce sanctions. “The Iranian economy is operating at significantly reduced levels and will continue to massively underperform for the foreseeable future,” Cohen said. The November agreement between Iran and six powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — required Tehran to scale back its nuclear activities in return for the limited sanctions relief. The Obama administration has presented the deal as a way to a peaceful solution to address longstanding concerns with Iran but has said that it is not taking for granted that diplomacy will succeed. Iran insists that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. The clerical regime has particularly tense relations with Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised the negotiated deal. The US Congress, where support for Israel runs deep, has looked at ramping up sanctions on Iran despite the accord, but Obama has threatened to veto any bid to derail the ongoing diplomacy. Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has distanced himself from fellow Democrat Obama on Iran, demanded that any final deal with Tehran include the dismantling of “large portions of its nuclear infrastructure.” “We have placed our incredibly effective international sanctions regime on the line without clearly defining the parameters of what we expect in a final agreement,” Menendez said. Senator Jim Risch, a Republican, said that he was “disgusted” by the diplomatic effort. “I hope you will prove me dead wrong, but I don’t think (you) will, given the history of these people,” Risch said of Iran as he criticized its imprisonment of at least two US citizens. But Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said that sanctions brought Iran to negotiations, and it was now important to try “aggressive diplomacy.” Sanctions have “crippled the economy, but if anything it has also, by making Iran isolated, accelerated their path to try to develop nuclear technology for whatever purpose,” Kaine said. “So if we’re going to stop that nuclear programme and that quest for nuclear weapons, we have to either do it diplomatically or do it militarily,” he said. Kaine warned that he would support war if Iran pursued a nuclear weapon despite the deal. “We may have to undertake that significant step, but we shouldn’t do it if we leave diplomatic avenues unexplored,” he said. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
