Obama Threatens Russia With New Sanctions Over Ukraine

Obama-Sanctions-Costs

Obama threatens Russia with new sanctions over Ukraine (RT, Aug 28, 2014):

President Barack Obama acknowledged during an impromptu press conference on Thursday afternoon that the United States is considering new sanctions to impose against Russia over the escalating crisis in Ukraine.

From the White House, Pres. Obama told reporters that he’s certain Russia is playing a direct role in the ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine between anti-Kiev separatists and the country’s military, and that the US is weighing further sanctions to intensify the restrictions previously waged against Moscow.

“As a result of the action Russia has already taken and the major sanctions we’ve imposed,” Obama said, “Russia is already more isolated than any time since the end of the cold war.”

“The separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia. Throughout this process we’ve seen deep Russian involvement in everything that they’ve done,” Obama added.

That behavior, he added, “will only bring more cost and consequences to Russia.” After speaking with allies, Obama continued, he expects a new wave of sanctions to come soon. The president is expected to meet with NATO partners next week, and said the US “will continue to stand firm with our allies and partners” to protect Ukraine from further encroachment.

In our consultation with our European allies,” Obama said, “…my expectation is we will take additional steps, primary because we have not seen any meaningful action on the part of Russia to try and actually resolve this in a diplomatic fashion.”

Earlier Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said during a press conference that there are “additional tools and sanctions” being considered against Russia.

Psaki and the president’s remarks sandwiched a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York City, during which representatives from the US, United Kingdom, Australia and others all urged Russia to refrain from further escalating the situation near its border with eastern Ukraine.

In the face of this threat, the cost of inaction is unacceptable,” Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, said during the meeting.

Vitaly Churkin, Power’s Russian counterpart, deflected blame and warned the US: “Stop interfering in the affairs of sovereign states.”

On his part, Pres. Obama added that the US has ruled out the possibility of a military response.

We are not taking military action to solve the Ukrainian problem. What we’re doing is to mobilize the international community to apply pressure on Russia. But I think it is very important to recognize that a military solution for this problem is not going to be forthcoming,” he said.

“Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but a number of those states who are close by are,” he added, “and we take our Article Five commitments to defend each other very seriously — and that includes the smallest NATO member as well as the largest.”

1 thought on “Obama Threatens Russia With New Sanctions Over Ukraine”

  1. An old, dying economy using sanctions against a strong, growing new economy……over half the world is in Putin’s camp…….is desperate at best. Russia and China stopped using the dollar in their trades with each other four years ago come November. The reason I know is that I was canvassing the web for such stories ever since it became apparent Obama would fix nothing…….late 2009.
    The web was more open then. In Spring of 2010, Hugo Chavez launched the first basket of currencies for his tiny South American Trade Alliance. With it, he introduced the Sucre, the first electronic currency. The Sucre translated the value of each member’s currency at the time of transaction, making conversion to any world reserve currency obsolete.
    Chavez did it for a tiny organization with an annual return of $500 million, and it flew under US radar.
    China and Russia, close allies, watched the endeavor closely. Seeing it’s success, they followed suit in November of 2010. The two nations set up a trade agreement to use their own currencies in trade, leaving the dollar out. China went on to recruit Turkey, Iran, and many emerging African nations. Over the next four years, they recruited much of South and Central America.
    Thanks to another stupid round of sanctions against another nation that has not used the dollar in decades…..Iran, Japan and India joined the eastern effort in early 2011. Obama gave Japan a “pass”, whatever that means. Iran is a strong and fruitful trading partner for much of the world these days, the Iraq war has made them very rich.
    African nations, suffering from millions of refugees from Iraq and other countries the US chose to carpet bomb for their oil and minerals, were glad to join the eastern effort.
    Australia and New Zealand dumped the dollar in 2013. Switzerland joined BRICS three weeks ago.
    I cannot list all the nations who now belong to the BRICS effort, because I don’t have them all listed in memory. All I know is that over half the world, most solvent nations…..and others who are struggling to survive and see hope in joining the east and have assets that will benefit the east…….all have joined them, dumped the dollar, and follow Putin.
    Putin has brilliantly established a sister economy to that of the west, and it gets easier every time the US puts more toothless sanctions into effect. He did not waste time re-inventing the wheel. For every absurd sanction, Putin has a clear and efficient response.
    Just look at the credit card debacle. Cut off MasterCard and Visa……Putin simply turned on the Chinese copy, and soon, their card will be used in Europe and much of the world. This undercuts the greedy gut bank shells they have in the US…….
    For every sanction the west imposes upon the east, they have a simple, well established response…….the west
    can find no simple answer………war will soon be.
    Best.

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