By: Agencies
Source: http://mwcnews.net/
The US has authorized sanctions that include visa bans and the seizure of assets of Ukrainians and Russians involved in stoking Ukraine’s ongoing crisis.
Barack Obama, the US president, issued an executive order and declared a state of emergency on Thursday, calling Russia’s involvement in Crimea an “extraordinary threat” to US national security and foreign policy.
People who “undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine, threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity and contribute to the misappropriation of its assets” will have any existing property and interests in the US blocked, Obama said.
The European Union also threatened to impose sanctions on Russia for its invasion into Ukraine’s Crimea region.
“We need to send a very clear message to the Russian government that what has happened is unacceptable and should have consequences,” said David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, as he arrived at an emergency meeting of the EU’s 28 leaders on Thursday.
Regional concerns
Poland, Lithuania and other eastern European countries, that are located closer to Russia’s borders, pushed for a strong and united EU response including meaningful sanctions, but Germany, the Netherlands and others preferred defusing the crisis through diplomacy without alienating Moscow.
“Whether [sanctions] will come into force depends also on how the diplomatic process progresses,” said Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, noting that foreign ministers, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, were also holding talks in Rome on Thursday.
“Russia today is dangerous,” said Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania’s President, warning that Moscow is seeking to expand its borders. “After Ukraine will be Moldova, and after Moldova will be different countries,” Grybauskaite added.
But drastic steps like asset freezes and travel bans on Russian officials are unlikely to be adopted due to Europe’s close ties with Russia.
EU exports to Russia in 2012 totalled $170bn and European banks have about $277bn in outstanding loans to Russia.
“All the indicators are that the final communique will not deliver the sanctions,” Al Jazeera’s McGregor-Wood said.
The EU has however offered Ukraine a wide-ranging free trade and economic agreement that would draw Kiev closer to Europe and help boost the country’s faltering economy.