The new U.S. sanctions also targeted Sergei Ivanov and Alexei Gromov, who both work in Mr. Putin's executive office, and Igor Sergun, the head of the Russian military's intelligence service. Also hit was Vladimir Yakunin, chairman of the state-owned Russian Railways; and several lawmakers.

Friday, March 21, 2014

The new U.S. sanctions also targeted Sergei Ivanov and Alexei Gromov, who both work in Mr. Putin's executive office, and Igor Sergun, the head of the Russian military's intelligence service. Also hit was Vladimir Yakunin, chairman of the state-owned Russian Railways; and several lawmakers.

"The new U.S. sanctions also targeted Sergei Ivanov and Alexei Gromov, who both work in Mr. Putin's executive office, and Igor Sergun, the head of the Russian military's intelligence service. Also hit was Vladimir Yakunin, chairman of the state-owned Russian Railways; and several lawmakers." - WSJ

U.S., Russia Trade Sanctions Over Crimea

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Moscow has completed the process of making Ukraine's Crimea part of Russia, as Ukraine's prime minister, in a highly symbolic move, signed a political cooperation agreement with the Europ...

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mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed into law legislation completing the annexation of Crimea, calling it a "remarkable event." The Kremlin signing ceremony took place after ...

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U.S., Russia Trade Sanctions Over Crimea
Friday March 21st, 2014 at 11:03 AM

Updated March 21, 2014 6:51 a.m. ET

A new round of U.S. sanctions against Russia over its plans to annex Crimea were laughed off by lawmakers in Russia as President Vladimir Putin saw his position strengthen in recent poll ratings reports WSJ's Greg White.

The U.S. raised the stakes Thursday in its confrontation with Russia over Crimea, aiming a new round of sanctions closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle even as Moscow struck back with penalties of its own on U.S. lawmakers and White House officials.

The Obama administration's more aggressive move—targeting a high-profile Russian bank as well as some of Mr. Putin's wealthiest and most influential supporters—increased the likelihood the retaliation could spiral.

It also marked a notable reversal for a White House that until last month saw Mr. Putin and his government as a vital international partner.

Moscow has vowed an "asymmetrical" response that could encompass global issues important to the U.S., such as the Iran nuclear talks. U.S. officials said earlier that they were prepared for a Russian move to constrict supply routes used by the U.S. that pass near and through Russian territory.

EU press conference: Ukraine deal signed, expanded sanctions against Russia (recorded live feed) - YouTube
Friday March 21st, 2014 at 11:01 AM

Published on Mar 21, 2014

Closing speeches of Herman van Rompuy and Barroso after the two-day European Council summit in Brussels

Earlier, the European Union and Ukraine signed a landmark political cooperation accord on Friday, committing to the same deal former president Viktor Yanukovich rejected last November, a decision that led to his overthrow.
Van Rompuy, the European Council president, said the
agreement would bring Ukraine and its 46 million people closer
to the heart of Europe and a "European way of life".

What is in the news today? Click to watch: http://eurone.ws/1kb2gOl

Read the whole story

· ·

Kyiv Signs EU Agreement As Putin Signs Crimea Annexation
Friday March 21st, 2014 at 10:44 AM

Voice Of America

Moscow has completed the process of making Ukraine's Crimea part of Russia, as Ukraine's prime minister, in a highly symbolic move, signed a political cooperation agreement with the European Union.
President Vladimir Putin signed laws on the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation on March 21 after the upper house ratified the annexation treaty earlier in the day. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, overwhelmingly backed the treaty in a session the previous day.
Ukraine has said it will continue to fight for Crimea's "liberation."
Many states have rejected the annexation as a clear violation of international law, and the United States and the European Union have imposed targeted sanctions over the move.
EU President Herman Van Rompuy said the signing early on March 21 of political chapters of the Association Agreement with Ukraine shows how important the relationship between the two sides is.
"Today, we are signing the [association] agreement's political provisions," Rompuy said. "It shows our steadfast support for the course the people of Ukraine have courageously pursued. Today is but the opening act. We expect to soon sign the agreement's remaining parts, not least the economic provisions. Together with the political ones, they form a single instrument."
Rompuy and other EU leaders signed the agreement with Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. The two sides signed three of the seven chapters of the agreement.
"This deal covers the most existential and most important issues, mainly security and defense cooperation," Yatsenyukd said. "This deal will establish a joint decision-making body, which is to facilitate the process of real reforms in my country. And this deal meets the aspirations of millions of Ukrainians that want to be a part of the European Union."
It was the refusal by ousted President Viktor Yanukovych to sign an association and free-trade agreement with the EU in November that triggered months of crisis.
On the first day of the EU summit on March 20, EU leaders warned against any steps by Russia to further destabilize the situation in Ukraine.
On Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron warned the Kremlin that Russia would face far reaching consequences if it sent troops into Ukraine after a referendum in Crimea which he said has been carried out under the barrel of a Kalashnikov.
"The best rebuke to Russia is a strong and successful Ukraine,'' Cameron said, adding that if Russian troops went into eastern Ukraine then the Kremlin would face "far-reaching consequences in a broad range of economic areas.''
Cameron also said that Russia is more dependent on Europe than Europe
is on Russia.
Europe widened its sanctions against Moscow on Friday as Germany suspended approval of all defense-related exports to Russia, ordering defense contractor Rheinmetall to halt delivery of combat simulation gear, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday that France was suspending his military cooperation with Russia. During a trip to Baltic states, he said the suspension would concern joint military exercices but said nothing about the fate of contracts to supply Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia.
In Kyiv, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Ukraine and Russia on Friday to meet for talks to prevent the crisis between them becoming "uncontrollable'' and spreading beyond the region.
His visit follows a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, where he also called for dialogue and restraint after Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Sanctions
The United States has imposed sanctions on allies of President Vladimir Putin, as well as Bank Rossiya, which has close ties to the Russian leadership.
In retaliation, the Russian Foreign Ministry released its list of Americans targeted for sanctions.
Putin on March 21 said there is no need for Russia to further retaliate against U.S. sanctions.
In televised comments, the Russian president also quipped that he would open an account with Bank Rossiya.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking to the Federation Council ahead of the vote, said Western sanctions against Russian officials were irrational and would create unnecessary barriers.
The Federation Council in a statement denounced the sanctions as "political blackmail."

Read the whole story

· · ·

Russia Sends Mixed Signals on Response to U.S. Sanctions
Friday March 21st, 2014 at 10:43 AM

March 21, 2014 6:05 a.m. ET

Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to sign documents on Friday that completed the process of absorbing Crimea into Russia, defying Western leaders who say the Black Sea peninsula remains part of Ukraine. Reuters

MOSCOW—Russia sent mixed signals Friday on how it planned to answer broadening U.S. sanctions in reaction to the annexation of Crimea, with President Vladimir Putin saying officials should refrain from further retaliation but the foreign ministry and a top aide promising a tough response.

Mr. Putin's offered a conciliatory tone on how Russia would respond to the sanctions that targeted members of his inner circle and other high-ranking government officials, saying the ratcheting up of tensions needed to be contained after Russia issued a tit-for-tat travel ban on nine U.S. government officials.

"I think we need to refrain from taking any retaliatory countermeasures for now," Mr. Putin said, hours before signing a decree formally making Crimea part of Russia and appointing a presidential envoy to the region after Russia's upper house of parliament approved an annexation treaty.

It wasn't immediately clear what steps Mr. Putin was referring to, although he specifically said he wanted Russia to continue participating in a program with North Atlantic Treaty Organization to provide spare parts for Russian-built helicopters being used in Afghanistan. Earlier in the week, Foreign Ministry officials suggested that sanctions could affect areas of international cooperation like negotiations with Iran, overflight agreements with NATO for delivery of supplies to Afghanistan and the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria.

But Mr. Putin's chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later told the Interfax news agency that Russia planned to impose "mirror image" sanctions on the U.S., suggesting that Russia may target more U.S. officials and perhaps business figures for inclusion on its list. He also said that Russia would stand behind the people and institutions targeted for sanctions.

"We are not looking for a confrontation and we are not the source of this sanctions exchange," Mr. Peskov said. "Each time we will respond with a mirror image [to measures against Russia] but we are still advocating a development of our cooperation and are interested in it," he said.

And the foreign ministry said it planned a "tough" response.

"Washington should not be under any illusion: the effectiveness of sanctions in terms of American interests is zero. But Russian-American relations will inevitably be harmed by these irresponsible actions," ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

In 2012, when the U.S. passed the Magnitsky Act—a list barring Russian officials connected to the 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky from traveling to the U.S. or using American banks—Russia responded by creating its own list of U.S. officials it accused of human rights violations and said they were banned from Russia. But Russia later barred U.S. meat imports over a commonly-used growth hormone and ended the adoption of Russian children by American families, in moves widely seen as retaliation for the Magnitsky law.

Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Kremlin's foreign policy advisory panel, said the U.S. sanctions would likely speed up Russia's foreign-policy turn towards the east, where Moscow increasingly has been courting China as a strategic partner.

"The relationship with the West isn't a top priority anymore," he said, noting that Russia feels it is not treated on equal footing with Western governments after years of trying.

Still, he said there are some signs that tensions may have reached their peak.

"Everything has happened so unexpectedly and so quickly. There's reason to end here," he said.

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Your Value Your Change Short position said they had ceased offering services to four Russian banks as a result of the sanctions.

Russia Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russia's 2010 rental agreement for its Crimean naval base at Sevastopol—home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet—would be canceled as would significant discounts for gas supplied to Ukraine as part of the base deal, according to Interfax. He said that adding the discounts to other Ukrainian debts, the new government in Kiev now owes Russia $16 billion.

On Thursday, the U.S. expanded the list of those targeted by sanctions to include several people close to Mr. Putin and a number of government officials who had voiced support for taking control of Crimea. The list also included a financial institution, Bank Rossiya, that is owned by a member of Mr. Putin's inner circle and that the U.S. Treasury Department said is used as the personal bank for senior officials in the Russian government.

On Friday, Bank Rossiya as well as SMP Bank—which is owned by confidantes of Mr. Putin, Boris and Arkady Rotenberg —said that Visa and MasterCard had ceased to offer services for financial transactions for them as part of the sanctions regime.

SMP Bank called the move illegal as it isn't directly named on the sanctions list.

Visa said that the service cutoff extended to Bark Rossiya subsidiary Sobinbank and SMP subsidiary InvestCapitalBank. The service disruption spread to a number of other banks which relied on the institutions Visa and MasterCard cut off for processing services. There were reports that the disruption was being felt by some local merchants who had difficulty processing credit and banking card payments.

Mr. Putin on Friday ordered Russia's central bank to lend support to Bank Rossiya—Russia's 17th largest financial institution—and said he planned to open an account and have his official salary deposited there starting next week. He said he found the bank had "a very good-sounding and symbolic name." Later, Chechen strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, also said he also will open an account at Bank Rossiya and have his salary deposited there.

Russia's central bank said that the sanctions against Bank Rossiya won't have a significant impact on its financial stability and that it was ready to take measures to support the lender and protect the interests of its depositors and creditors. But Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that sanctions could have a negative effect on Russian securities and could raise the cost of borrowing.

Mr. Lukyanov predicted that the U.S. sanctions leveled against Mr. Putin's inner circle would do little to rock support for Mr. Putin among his most trusted colleagues and businessmen.

"They are a very cohesive and disciplined group of people," Mr. Lukyanov said. "Just as they'll absorb "presents," they will also absorb blows."

Write to Lukas I. Alpert at lukas.alpert@wsj.com and Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com

Read the whole story

· · · · · ·

Putin Mocks Sanctions For Russians Over Crimea
Friday March 21st, 2014 at 10:42 AM

Faces Caught In The Middle Of US-Russia Spat

Updated: 8:45pm UK, Thursday 20 March 2014

The fresh wave of US sanctions against Russia include banning some of the country's richest and most influential businessmen - and President Vladimir Putin's closest friends - from entering America.

Among the individuals targeted with and travel bans and freezing of US assets are billionaire brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg.

The co-owners of SMP Bank and SGM Group, a major supplier of construction services to Russian gas giant Gazprom, were judo sparring partners with Mr Putin.

The pair - friends of Mr Putin since childhood - also made billions in Sochi Olympics-related contracts.

Financier Yuri Kovalchuk, the largest shareholder of Bank Rossiya, is a personal banker for senior Russian officials - including, reportedly, Mr Putin. He is another close friend - and a neighbour - of the president.

They have known each other since the early 1990s when Mr Kovalchuk was deputy mayor of St Petersburg.

The bank - also on the hit list - serves some of the country's wealthiest officials and controls two big insurance firms - Sogas and SK Transneft.

High-level Kremlin officials including Mr Putin's chief of staff Sergei Ivanov and deputy chief of staff Alexei Gromov are also targeted, as well as Vladimir Yakunin, chairman of the board of the Russian state-owned company Russian Railways and a close confidant of the president.

Gennady Timchenko, a prominent businessman and owner of the private investment group, Volga Group, which specialises in investments in energy, transport and infrastructure assets is also named by the US.

President Putin's spokesman said some of the names on the list caused "nothing but extreme bewilderment" - and Russia immediately responded with its own list of sanctions on American officials.

These included Obama aides Caroline Atkinson (deputy assistant and deputy national security adviser for international economics), Daniel Pfeiffer (senior adviser and assistant ), and Benjamin Rhodes (assistant and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications and speechwriting), as well as senators Mary Landrieu, John McCain and Daniel Coats.

Mr McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, and Mr Putin have long been engaged in a bitter personal feud.

During their last war of words in September 2013, the US senator accused Mr Putin of corruption, repression and self-serving rule in an opinion piece for a Russian website in response to a letter Mr Putin wrote in The New York Times, urging America not to use military force in Syria.

In an opinion piece headlined "Russians Deserve Better Than Putin", Mr McCain also accused the president of being "a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed" for siding with Syria's President Bashar al Assad.

Back in December 2011, Mr Putin let his views be known on Mr McCain after the US politician tweeted "Dear Vlad, The #ArabSpring is coming to a neighbourhood near you" at a time of huge protests across Moscow.

When pressed about the tweet during a televised phone-in, the Russian president hit back, calling the senator "nuts".

"Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore," he said.

Mr Putin added: "Mr McCain was captured and they kept him not just in prison, but in a pit for several years. Anyone [in his place] would go nuts."

Earlier this month, Speaker of the House John Boehner, also on the Russian list, called Mr Putin a "thug" over its actions in Crimea, according to The Enquirer.

The Republican told the Cincinnati newspaper it was "time to stand up to Putin", adding: "At what point do you say enough is enough? We are at that point."

He, and Senators Landrieu, McCain and Coats hailed their inclusion on the Russian list as a "badge of honour", while the White House refused to comment.

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Putin signs laws annexing Crimea as Russia investors take fright
Friday March 21st, 2014 at 10:40 AM

MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin signed laws completing Russia's annexation of Crimea on Friday, as investors took fright at a U.S. decision to slap sanctions on his inner circle of money men and security officials.

Putin promised to protect a bank partly owned by an old ally, which Washington has blacklisted, and his spokesman said Russia would respond in kind to the financial and visa curbs.

Russian shares fell sharply after President Barack Obama also threatened on Thursday to target major sectors of the economy if Moscow tried to move on other areas of Ukraine beyond the Black Sea peninsula.

Europe also tightened the screws by widening its sanctions list, and Germany suspended approval of all defense-related exports to Russia, ordering defense contractor Rheinmetall to halt delivery of combat simulation gear. France suspended military cooperation with Moscow.

In a Kremlin ceremony shown live on state television, Putin signed a law on ratification of a treaty making Crimea part of Russia as well as legislation creating two new Russian administrative districts: Crimea and the port city of Sevastopol, where Moscow keeps part of its Black Sea fleet.

Officials and lawmakers in Moscow have largely laughed off Western sanctions imposed after Russian troops seized control of Crimea. A referendum in the majority Russian-speaking region - which overwhelmingly backed union with Russia but was denounced by Washington and the European Union as a sham - then opened the way for the annexation.

Obama's decision to go for the financial jugular of the people who accompanied Putin's rise from the mayor's office in St Petersburg in the 1990s to the Russian presidency has deepened the diplomatic confrontation.

Putin said Bank Rossiya, singled out by Washington as the personal bank for senior Russian officials, had nothing to do with the events in Crimea and promised to keep his salary there. The St Petersburg-based bank is chaired and partly owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, an old associate of Putin's.

Other names on the U.S. blacklist includes oil and commodities trader Gennady Timchenko and the brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who are linked to big contracts on gas pipelines and the Sochi Olympics, as well as Putin's chief of staff and his deputy, the head of military intelligence and a railways chief.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said he expected no big immediate impact from the sanctions.

A consortium led by Stroitransgaz, owned by Timchenko, is set to win a 3.5 billion euro ($4.8 billion) deal to build a section of the South Stream natural gas pipeline across EU member Bulgaria, industry sources said.

But, underlining how Washington can apply pressure via the international financial system, U.S. credit card companies Visa and MasterCard stopped providing services for payment transactions with Russia's SMP bank, owned by the Rotenberg brothers, the bank said.

Obama said Washington was also considering sanctions against

economic sectors including financial services, oil and gas, metals and mining and the defense industry, if Russia made military moves into eastern and southern Ukraine.

Diplomats said the mere mention of such a possibility would chill investment in Russia, charging an immediate price for Moscow's action in Crimea and serving as a potential deterrent to going further.

The EU also extended its personal sanctions to another 12 middle-ranking Russian and Crimean officials.

A PANDORA'S BOX OF SANCTIONS

Russia's MICEX stock index fell about 3 percent when trade opened, although it recovered some of the losses later. Promsvyazbank analyst Oleg Shagov said Obama had "opened a Pandora's box full of sanctions", with future sanctions to be "directed against whole sectors of the Russian economy".

Negative market sentiment was reinforced by warnings from credit ratings agencies Fitch and S&P that they were changing their outlooks on Russia to negative from stable because of the possible impact of sanctions on Russia's economy and business climate. Both agencies presently rate Russia BBB.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev made clear that Russia would step up financial pressure on Ukraine. He said the former Soviet republic should repay Moscow $11 billion under a gas supply contract that should be scrapped because it no longer applied.

Medvedev said the agreements under which Russia was to provide cheap gas in return for the lease of the Sevastopol naval base in Crimea were "subject to denunciation", giving Russia a legal right to sue for money back from Ukraine.

Altogether, Kiev owed Moscow $16 billion, he added.

EU SUPPORT FOR KIEV

In Brussels, the 28 EU leaders underlined their support for Ukraine's new leadership following the fall of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich in street protests last month.

They signed a political agreement with interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk and promised financial aid for the government - rejected as illegitimate by Moscow - as soon as Kiev reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF is to report next Tuesday on advanced talks with Ukraine on a loan program that would be linked to far-reaching reforms of the shattered economy.

An East-West tug-of-war has grown over Ukraine. Three months of protests were set off by Yanukovich's refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU, the political part of which was signed on Friday.

The EU leaders agreed to impose asset freezes and visa bans on 12 more mid-ranking Russian and Crimean officials and to consider wider economic sanctions if Russia further destabilizes the situation in Ukraine. But they said Europe did not have a legal basis to extend the personal sanctions against Putin associates without proof of their direct involvement in the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.

"Small measures in the EU are worth more than big measures in the United States," a senior European official said, noting that EU trade with Moscow was 10 times the U.S. volume.

"It's about cutting off Russia politically and diplomatically," the official said, dismissing criticism that EU sanctions looked weaker than the U.S. measures.

In one glimmer of diplomatic progress, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said an agreement was near on sending a monitoring mission by the pan-European OSCE security watchdog. The EU had threatened to send its own monitors if Moscow continued to block a mandate at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker, Adrian Croft, Jan Strupczewski and Martin Santa in Brussels, Oksana Kobzeva, Lidia Kelly, Elizabeth Piper, Jason Bush and Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow; Writing by Paul Taylor and David Stamp; Editing by Will Waterman)

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RUSSIA and THE WEST - РОССИЯ и ЗАПАД

Friday, March 21, 2014