US sanctions Putin’s inner circle
Fox News reports that the White House has issued sanctions against Vlad Putin’s inner circle in retaliation for the vote in the Ukraine yesterday which resulted in the Crimea province expressing it’s desire to join the Russians politically.
While stopping short of singling out Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, President Obama sanctioned several members of Putin’s inner circle. The White House also announced sanctions against separatist leaders in Crimea and former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.
“We have fashioned these sanctions to impose costs on named individuals who wield influence in the Russian government and those responsible for the deteriorating situation in Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement. “We stand ready to use these authorities in a direct and targeted fashion as events warrant.”
In it’s fact sheet for the impending Executive Order, the White House names the eleven sanctioned individuals;
Vladislav Surkov: Surkov is being sanctioned for his status as a Presidential Aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sergey Glazyev: Glazyev is being sanctioned for his status as a Presidential Adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Leonid Slutsky: Slutsky is being sanctioned for his status as a State Duma deputy, where he is Chairman of the Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration, and Relations with Compatriots.
Andrei Klishas: Klishas is being sanctioned for his status as a Member of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and as Chairman of the Federation Council Committee of Constitutional Law, Judicial, and Legal Affairs, and the Development of Civil Society.
Valentina Matviyenko: Matviyenko is being sanctioned for her status as Head of the Federation Council
Dmitry Rogozin: Rogozin is being sanctioned for his status as the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
Yelena Mizulina: Mizulina is being sanctioned for her status as a State Duma Deputy.
Sergey Aksyonov: Aksyonov is being designated for threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for undermining Ukraine’s democratic institutions and processes. Aksyonov claims to be the Prime Minister of Crimea and has rejected the authority of the legitimate government in Kyiv.
Vladimir Konstantinov: Konstantinov is being designated for threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for undermining Ukraine’s democratic institutions and processes. Konstantinov is the speaker of the Crimean parliament, which on March 11, 2014, declared independence from Ukraine.
Viktor Medvedchuk: Medvedchuk, leader of Ukrainian Choice, is being designated for threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for undermining Ukraine’s democratic institutions and processes. He is also being designated because he has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support to Yanukovych and because he is a leader of an entity that has, or whose members have, engaged in actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine and actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Viktor Yanukovych: Former Ukrainian President Yanukovych is being designated for threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for undermining Ukraine’s democratic institutions and processes. After abandoning Kyiv and ultimately fleeing to Russia, Viktor Yanukovych called upon Russian President Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops into Ukraine.
The statement for the Fact Sheet threatens further action;
Today’s actions also serve as notice to Russia that unless it abides by its international obligations and returns its military forces to their original bases and respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the United States is prepared to take additional steps to impose further political and economic costs.
I guess that means that next time they’re going to target Putin, but it seems to me they would have done that in the first place rather than bracketing him. I mean, if they were serious about the whole thing.
Category: Foreign Policy
Man…we got ’em quaking in their boots now don’t we? Strongly worded sanctions. Oh the mere thought scares the crap out of me. 😀
Can they also sanction Putin for riding a bear shirtless? But it they do, they’ll have to sanction Obama for riding his little bicycle with his helmet, ringing the little handle bar bell all the while. Impotent dip shits has to be going through Putin’s mind about now.
I understand that each named party is prohibited from any US theme park this summer. Tough love.
2/17 Air Cav Do you mean no Six Flags and no Disney World? Man…that’s harsh. This will make them think twice. Those photos of Russian tourists with Mickey and Minnie are GOLD over there! I mean trading card type GOLD. All they have now are State sponsored trading cards of Putin in different manly poses.
“No Walmart for you!”
What is the sanction? Smart power.
Just keep moving that red line and sending those “strongly worded” letters. Putin knows this whole administration is a joke and weak. He also knows that the U.N. won’t do a single thing. Back to the U.S.S.R they go.
You don’t get it. O wants Vlad to be his friend, so he can’t target Vlad. “Can’t we all just get along?” He doesn’t want Vlad to be mean to him anymore.
+1
Obama. Why? He just wants to draw another red line, go play golf, hope everything goes well, plan his next vacation, then find a scapegoat if things go south.
I don’t think we needed to do anything in this situation. Crimea voted to return to Russia. We have no business sticking our nose in it. I have family living in Moscow right now, with more family moving there this Summer, and this tit for tat bullshit is going to affect them very soon, if we don’t just stay the hell out of it. Let Quebec secede, let Scotland secede and for the love of all that’s holy, let parts of Kalifornia secede (not all Kalifornia is screwed up, just the population centers on the coast)!
Well, the thing is that this all started with illegal acts and violent protests not by Russians but by those fed up with the Ukrainian pres and his boys. Once he was unconstitutionally forced from his seat, this wasn’t going to end well. Then a fabricated legislature was set up…blah, blah, blah…and the ‘elections’ were called–and most non-Russian Ukrainians boycotted. This might not have happened IF the rule of law had been followed originally AND, later, Ivan actually was concerned about world opinion. Ivan has now nationalized Ukraine’s gas and oil companies and another area of Ukraine that is heavily populated with Russians is clamoring for adoption now. In the end, Ivan wins and that’s that. Of course, I expect bombings and other bad things now as the younger, more rebellious Ukrainans target the Crimean Russians.
I don’t think we’ll see that kind of trouble in Crimea, 2/17 Air Cav. That region is heavily (nearly 60%) ethnic Russian and less than 1/4 ethnic Ukrainian.
The easternmost provinces of the Ukraine are another matter, though – especially the Donetsk basin and other parts of the Ukraine in that region. There, it’s much closer to an even split – and many of the ethnic Ukrainians speak Russian and have ties to Moscow as well as Kiev.
In those easternmost areas, you may well be right. And if that happens . . . .IMO things could get dicey as hell.
Yeah, I need to correct something. The nationalization of gas, oil, and other companies by Ivan occurred in Crimea, not the whole of the Ukraine. And Hondo, if bad things happen, that’s an open invitation for Russia to move again and solidify its presence in Ukraine. And those who might be so inclined to act against Ivan know that they will receivbe no outside help–unless being listed on the Unwelcome List at Disneyland really carries weight.
When asked about the sanctions against his cabinet members, Vladimir Putin looked impatiently at his watch and replied, “Uh, sorry, am I supposed to give a shit? Obama’s a pussy and I’m not. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m torturing a Chechen at 2:30 and you’ve already made me late…”
The Other Whitey Thanks my man! Just spewed coffee on my keyboard! “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m torturing a Chechen at 2:30 and you’ve already made me late…”
That’s gold right there. 😀
Indeed, comedy gold from Whitey. :-0
Wonder what the odds are that Putin used the term “dolboyeb” while talking about those responsible for this latest “rebuke” from the current US administration?
Viktor Yanukovych is on the list. That would be the legitimate president of the country Ukraine who was unconstitutionally expelled and who, without support, fled to Russia. He is a native Ukrainian and, like him or not, he was the president. Those who opposed his movement from the EU toward Russia had other options: elections and patience. But the former was not yet ripe and the latter was not exercised. And so it goes. So, now, being on the Penalty List, he gets no soup and is not welcome at Orlando this year.
Putin better watch his ass. Next will be Obama drawing a “line in the sand”