Obama Announces More Sanctions Against Russia

Credit: Pete Souza/wikimedia

Today President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. was putting sanctions on additional Russian officials and imposing sanctions on a Russian bank. Obama also said that he had signed an executive order allowing for sanctions to target "key sectors of the Russian economy." The latest set of sanctions also target wealthy supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Obama also urged Congress to pass assistance legislation for Ukraine.

The news comes a few days after the U.S. and the European Union imposed travel bans and asset freezes on selected Russian and Ukrainian officials in the wake of Sunday's referendum in Crimea in which voters backed the Black Sea peninsula joining Russia.

Obama is going to travel to Europe next week to meet with European and Asian allies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that the E.U. will impose further sanctions on Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and will suspend G8 meetings. 

Although Obama has ruled out a military operation in Ukraine in response to the ongoing crisis there the Pentagon announced earlier this month that it would increase its participation in NATO air patrols in the Baltics. Vice President Joe Biden recently said that the U.S. may consider carrying out military exercises in the Baltic region.

According to the Associated Press, Russia has imposed entry bans on American lawmakers and officials in response to sanctions. 

Comments

[Episiarch]

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you look like a chump. Too bad they don't die any more.

[anon]

Seeing heads on pikes irl would be pretty cool.

[Episiarch]

I have to say that all realities aside, as there is nothing I can do about them, it's hilarious watching Obama flounder around as Putin dips his balls in his mouth. Here at home, Obama's utter incompetence is just covered up, papered over, and we all pay for it. But on the "international stage", his cronies and lickspittle domestic media can't do that for him, and he looks like a fucking moron. Nothing would please me more than him having some kind of tantrum or breakdown over it.

[Rich]

Nothing would please me more than him having some kind of tantrum or breakdown over it.

Not a "nuclear meltdown", please.

[Tim]

"I'm the president! I'm the PRESIDENT!"

[Episiarch]

"The missiles are flying. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!"

[vonPeterhof]

This time round it's actually a bit more questionable as to who's got whose balls in whose mouth, as it were. Unlike the previous purely symbolic sanctions on a bunch of nobodies, the latest sections hit actual business interests of Putin's inner circle (and, if the leaked info about Gunvor's ownership structure is to be believed, even Putin himself). Not many Russians will shed a tear for the brothers Rotenberg, Timchenko, Kovalchuk et al, while Putin will now have his cronies putting pressure on him. Sanctioning the bank Rossiya was also particularly well played - attacking a bigger bank like Sberbank or VTB would have screwed over millions of ordinary Russians, while Rossiya is a bank that is a) owned by Kovalchuk, b) is relatively small, c) does relatively little business with individual customers, and d) mostly deals in lucrative contracts with state-owned firms. This is both a precision strike at the heart of Putin's economic interests and a warning shot showing just how much damage the US is capable of. The irony of Putin talking down the West while his cronies stash their wealth there has finally started to bite him in the ass.

[CampingInYourPark]

Obama has forbidden Putin's bracket into the pool!

[Rich]

"We are not going to be getting into a military excursion in Ukraine," Mr. Obama told Mark Mullen

A "kinetic action", then? Drones *over* Ukraine, at least?

[Sevo]

Obo better watch it; this time Putin might not save his ass.

[Tim]

If he doesn't back down, Putin will be enrolled in Obamacare.

[Tim]

Threads are going south again.
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[John Galt]

Obama handles conflicts with other world leaders like he throws baseballs.

[John Galt]

Of course, Obama wouldn't be put in the position where he felt pressured to cat fight Putin had not Clinton and the Euros decided to violate the general international agreement that the nations of the world shall end the practice of carving up countries big or small. The reasons being it always leads to world wars and other mass senseless slaughtering.

Doing it to the Serbs was also brilliant. It doesn't require much intelligence to understand Russians are not being unreasonable to take it both very personally, as well as a critical threat to their own security.