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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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20Mar14
U.S. and Russia Swap Sanctions Tit for Tat Over Crimean Crisis
President Obama on Thursday announced that he would expand sanctions against Russia, blacklisting wealthy individuals with ties to the government and a bank used by them, and opening the door to broader measures against Russian energy exports.
The measures deliver on Mr. Obama's warning this week that the United States would ratchet up the costs for Russia if President Vladimir V. Putin moved to annex the breakaway province of Crimea. But they were aimed at forestalling further Russian incursions into eastern Ukraine, after what Mr. Obama described as troubling Russian military movements.
In a tit-for-tat response, Moscow banned nine American officials from entering Russia, including Speaker John A. Boehner, the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, Senator John McCain of Arizona, as well as three senior White House officials.
In a statement accompanying the list, Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced the American sanctions as a tool "from the arsenal of the past" that would backfire. "There should be no doubt: for every hostile attack, we will respond appropriately," the statement said.
The Russian action was met with a mixture of bemusement and mild defiance in Washington. Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said, "The speaker is proud to be included on a list of those willing to stand against Putin's aggression."
Mr. Obama made a statement on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday before leaving on a trip to Florida. "The United States is today moving, as we said we would, to impose additional costs on Russia," he said.
"These are all choices that the Russian government has made, choices that have been rejected by the international community."
Mr. Obama also said he had signed a new executive order that would allow him to impose sanctions on Russian industrial sectors, presumably including its energy exports -- a step that would greatly tighten the economic pressure on Russia.
Mr. Putin's spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, denounced the sanctions as unacceptable and suggested that one of those on the list, Mr. Putin's chief of staff, Sergei B. Ivanov, had spent more than 20 years in the K.G.B.'s foreign intelligence service and had already been banned by "a majority of countries in the West," he told Interfax, adding: "So he is quite accustomed to this situation."
Mr. Ivanov is a close friend and aide to Mr. Putin, the two having joined the K.G.B. together in 1975. Mr. Ivanov, who speaks perfect English and Swedish, is believed to have served undercover in Helsinki and London. He has served beside Mr. Putin throughout his presidency and was considered a possible successor when Mr. Putin stepped down after two terms in 2008, anointing instead another close aide, Dmitri A. Medvedev, now the prime minister.
Another Russian singled out, Vladimir I. Yakunin, the head of the Russian Railways and also a close adviser and friend to Mr. Putin since they met in St. Petersburg shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, said he was being punished for political reasons.
"I'm sorry that a country that calls itself democratic uses sanctions for an honest position and for honest statements," he told Interfax.
On Monday, the administration announced sanctions against seven Russian officials, including several close advisers to Mr. Putin, as well as against separatists figures in Crimea. The executive order signed by Mr. Obama laid the legal groundwork to punish Russian companies involved in the arms trade, as well as other officials who work with the Russian government. The administration is now moving on those fronts as well.
The new sanctions, which are coordinated with an expected imposition of new sanctions by the European Union, deepen the confrontation between the West and Russia. But it remains unclear whether any of this will put a brake on Russia, which has moved swiftly since the referendum in Crimea last Sunday to annex the province.
[Source: By Mark Landler, New York Times, Washington, 20Mar14]
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