Russia “May Respond” to New “Destructive” U.S. Sanctions
State Dept. refutes reports that communications have frozen.
The U.S. Treasury Department released more sanctions against Russians and Russian companies for Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in March 2014. The Kremlin has lashed out against these new sanctions, saying the government may respond:
“We regret that Washington is continuing on this destructive path,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“We believe this damages bilateral relations … Russia will take commensurate measures.”
The Hill continued:
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said his government is mulling “how we can respond asymmetrically.”
“We reserve the right to choose the timing, the venue and form of counter-moves the way that will suit us, and the way it will be relevant to our own priorities in the American direction,” Ryabkov told Russian-owned Tass news service. “We have repeatedly said and say once again that we all must be on alert.”
The Kremlin said communications between Russia and the U.S. have frozen up, but the State Department refutes the Kremlin’s claims:
“It’s difficult to know exactly what is meant by this comment, but diplomatic engagement with Russia continues across a wide range of issues,” U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. “That we have significant differences with Moscow on some of these issues is well known, but there hasn’t been a break in dialogue.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Tuesday regarding the situation in Syria, Kirby said.
The Treasury released the sanctions on Tuesday. The department has consistently placed sanctions on Russia since the Kremlin annexed Crimea:
“Today’s action is in response to Russia’s unlawful occupation of Crimea and continued aggression in Ukraine,” said John E. Smith, acting director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “These targeted sanctions aim to maintain pressure on Russia by sustaining the costs of its occupation of Crimea and disrupting the activities of those who support the violence and instability in Ukraine.”
Kirill Kovalchuk, Dmitri Lebedev, Dmitri Mansurov, Mikhail Klishin, Oleg Minaev and Mikhail Dedov, all executives with Bank Rossiya or its affiliates, were sanctioned for acting on behalf of the bank. Bank Rossiya has extensive ties to the Russian government.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a Russian businessman, has close ties with the Russia’s Ministry of Defense and a company with extensive ties to him is under contract to build a Russian military base near the country’s border with Ukraine.
The sanctions also target eight infrastructure, shipping and construction companies with ties to projects in and near Crimea.
Prigozhin also has alleged links to the troll factory that paid Russian citizens to literally troll news sites and social media by posting anonymous comments as a way “to bolster Kremlin policies.”
A company with a large presence in the U.S. could face penalties if caught doing business with anyone on a U.S. sanctions list.
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Comments
Lets get George Soros to finance another comical attempt at a coup in Ukraine because that worked so well the last time.
Сброс! Умная сила!
(Reset! Smart power!)
Why are they applying the sanctions now? Seems like the Obama Administration is doing its best to stir the pot before 20 Jan 2017.
That’s half the reason. The other is so Obama, in his post-presidency, can claim he ‘got tough’ with the Russians while in office.
The Russian “annexation” of the Crimean peninsula followed the violence of the Western-backed coup that exhibited rabid class diversity. Their intervention deterred mass abortions and immigration “reform” (a.k.a. refugee crisis) as occurred following other social “justice” adventures in Libya, Syria, Somalia, etc.
“The Russian “annexation” of the Crimean peninsula”
Why the flying heck did you put snark quotes there? The annexation is a thing. Even Putin officially declared it.So there is no reason to do it.
” followed the violence of the Western-backed coup that exhibited rabid class diversity.”
Utter nonsense. Euromaidan was not a coup, Western-backed or otherwise. That is just the face saving BS Putiin and Yanukovych peddle to try and salvage their oh so fearsome reputations from bungling it so badly.
The truth is that some nations have national sports, America’s is Football. Britain’s is Cricket. And Ukraine’s for most of modern history was protesting, with the country in a cold war between the pro-Western Oranges and the pro-Russian Blues. Yanukovych managed to unite the two against each other by doing something- throwing the EU Association agreement out for reasons that amounted to “Putin told me”- that irritated even his Blue constituency (which mostly lives in the rust belt). Which unsurprisingly triggered a lot of protests.
But even THEN he probably could have held onto power had he
Just. Stayed. Quiet. No other Ukrainian protest had toppled a sitting government, so he could have hunkered down and waited it out.
But noooo~. Instead he was the one who introduced violence into the equation by dispatching notoriously corrupt and brutal organizations like Berkut to attack what were fundamentally peaceful protests, enacted SWEEPING laws against even peaceful demonstrations, and took steps to protect thugs with law enforcement for being persecuted for misdeeds.
Unfortunately this just succeeded in ticking even more people off (including Kyiv’s thriving Rent-a-Protestor industry)and destroyed what legitimacy he had. Which is why HIS OWN RADA came forward to demand an explanation for why he was enacting decrees contrary to the Constitution. When he refused to do his job, they legally impeached and removed him from office.
That isn’t a coup, that is doing what should have been done to Obama.
“Their intervention deterred mass abortions”
Seriously moron?
Russia is ground zero for abortions in Northern Eurasia. Their ENTIRE POPULATION has an abortion rate that looks like the Black American one. Most pregnancies are aborted, as Mark Steyn said.
“and immigration “reform” (a.k.a. refugee crisis) as occurred following other social “justice” adventures in Libya, Syria, Somalia, etc.”
Sorry, but no.
Putin is quite literally importing thousands of mercenaries from the Caucasus, including from Chechnya of all places (thanks to his quasi-Islamist vassal, Kadyrov).
But something tells me you aren’t concerned about that, huh?
Pretty sedate stuff from the Russians, there.
I’d say they realize that nothing Obama’s likely to do will be of any significance, so there’s little point in responding. He’s not even worth trying to bluff; he won’t be there long enough for there to be any payoff. They’ll make some noncommittal noises just to show they haven’t folded their hand. Then they’ll wait until the new sheriff is in town, and take their good time sizing him up before doing anything rash.
Or, translated: “Right, whatever you say, kid. We’ll call later when your dad’s home.”
Sure Vlad, Go right ahead. I am sure the world is absolutely quaking in its’ boats over how you will screw Russian orphans and adoption agencies again.