Any chance we could extend Putins sanctions to include the U.S?
- Thread starter Max E.
- Start date
Russian Economy Takes Hit As U.S., EU Impose New Sanctions For Crimea Seizure
Reuters
Posted: 03/21/2014 6:41 am EDT Updated: 03/21/2014 11:59 am EDT
By Jason Bush and Barbara Lewis
"MOSCOW/BRUSSELS, March 21 (Reuters) - Russian shares fell sharply on Friday as investors took fright at tougher than expected U.S. sanctions against President Vladimir Putin's inner circle over Moscow's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
"The United States added 20 names to its sanctions blacklist, including Kremlin banker Yuri Kovalchuk and his Bank Rossiya, oil and commodities trader Gennady Timchenko and the brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who are linked to big contracts on gas pipelines and the Sochi Olympics, as well as Putin's chief of staff and his deputy, the head of military intelligence and a railways chief.
"In one immediate consequence, U.S. credit card companies Visa and MasterCard stopped providing services for payment transactions with Russia's SMP bank, owned by the Rotenberg brothers, the bank said.
"President Barack Obama said Washington was also considering sanctions against key economic sectors including financial services, oil and gas, metals and mining and the defense industry, if Russia made military moves into eastern and southern Ukraine.
"Diplomats said the mere mention of such a possibility would chill investment in Russia, charging an immediate price for Moscow's action in Crimea and serving as a potential deterrent to going further.
"The EU also extended its personal sanctions to another 12 middle-ranking Russian and Crimean officials.
"Though the MICEX share index lurched about 3 percent lower when trade opened, Putin mocked Obama's announcement of the visa bans and asset freezes on the money men and security officials who accompanied his rise from the mayor's office in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s.
"But he said Moscow should refrain from further retaliation against the United States for now."
More>>
Reuters
Posted: 03/21/2014 6:41 am EDT Updated: 03/21/2014 11:59 am EDT
By Jason Bush and Barbara Lewis
"MOSCOW/BRUSSELS, March 21 (Reuters) - Russian shares fell sharply on Friday as investors took fright at tougher than expected U.S. sanctions against President Vladimir Putin's inner circle over Moscow's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
"The United States added 20 names to its sanctions blacklist, including Kremlin banker Yuri Kovalchuk and his Bank Rossiya, oil and commodities trader Gennady Timchenko and the brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who are linked to big contracts on gas pipelines and the Sochi Olympics, as well as Putin's chief of staff and his deputy, the head of military intelligence and a railways chief.
"In one immediate consequence, U.S. credit card companies Visa and MasterCard stopped providing services for payment transactions with Russia's SMP bank, owned by the Rotenberg brothers, the bank said.
"President Barack Obama said Washington was also considering sanctions against key economic sectors including financial services, oil and gas, metals and mining and the defense industry, if Russia made military moves into eastern and southern Ukraine.
"Diplomats said the mere mention of such a possibility would chill investment in Russia, charging an immediate price for Moscow's action in Crimea and serving as a potential deterrent to going further.
"The EU also extended its personal sanctions to another 12 middle-ranking Russian and Crimean officials.
"Though the MICEX share index lurched about 3 percent lower when trade opened, Putin mocked Obama's announcement of the visa bans and asset freezes on the money men and security officials who accompanied his rise from the mayor's office in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s.
"But he said Moscow should refrain from further retaliation against the United States for now."
More>>
For those of us who lived through the Cold War, this whole episode is like being in an alternative universe. Of course, some, like Johnny McCain, don't realize the Cold War is over and we really have no reason to be enemies with Russia.
How could it possibly come to pass that the most conservative right wingers, like myself, now admire Putin and mock the President of the United States? How is it we hope Putin prevails in this showdown and further humiliates obama?
And it's not just the paleo-conservatives who have changed sides. The media used to give the Soviets the same kid-glove treatment they give Obama now. We were regularly told that Reagan was a dangerous lunatic and our only hope for peace lay with Gobachev, and we should do everything possible to accommodate him and the USSR. Liberal democrats made careers out of trying to undermine our efforts to defeat communist expanionism in places like Latin America. Now they are shocked, shocked, that Putin is making inroads there.
How could it possibly come to pass that the most conservative right wingers, like myself, now admire Putin and mock the President of the United States? How is it we hope Putin prevails in this showdown and further humiliates obama?
And it's not just the paleo-conservatives who have changed sides. The media used to give the Soviets the same kid-glove treatment they give Obama now. We were regularly told that Reagan was a dangerous lunatic and our only hope for peace lay with Gobachev, and we should do everything possible to accommodate him and the USSR. Liberal democrats made careers out of trying to undermine our efforts to defeat communist expanionism in places like Latin America. Now they are shocked, shocked, that Putin is making inroads there.
How? You start with hatred of Obama. Then anything and everything that puts him in a bad light you support, even if that means completely reversing what you think is right in this world, and even if it harms America. That's how.
