Author Topic: Obama warns sanctions against Russia are 'teed up' as tension builds in Ukraine  (Read 489 times)

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Offline flowers

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/24/obama-says-new-sanctions-against-russia-are-teed-up/?intcmp=latestnews

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President Obama said Thursday that new sanctions targeting Russia are "teed up" in the wake of a fresh warning by the Russian foreign minister that attacks on Russian citizens or interests in Ukraine would bring a firm response.

Obama said Russia has not abided by the spirit or the letter of an agreement reached in Geneva last week that aimed to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine. He said Russia has failed to halt aggression by pro-Russian militants in the region.

Still, he cautioned that the United States needs to secure the support of allies to ensure that additional economic pressure is even applied. He conceded that new sanctions may not change Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions and that the crisis in Ukraine may not subside.

"How well they change his calculus depends on the cooperation of other countries," Obama said during a news conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his first stop of a four-country tour of Asia.


Offline EC

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Sanctions have consequences.

Russia and China are being pushed closer together. Russia has two things the Chinese need, desperately. Fuel and land (most of the land along the border is unoccupied). China has a massive industrial machine, that puts the rest of the world to shame. They have similar ideologies.

Thus far, the only thing that has really kept them apart is the profound xenophobia of both populations. Hit Russia hard with sanctions though, and the powers that be will have to look to creating closer ties.
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Offline EC

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Russia is not self-sufficient capitalwise and selling oil to China alone is unlikely to replace the revenue they need, particularly if they're paid in yuan instead of dollars.  If the US and Europe were really serious about opposing Russia's moves, they could do a lot of damage to Russia with nothing more than Obama's vaunted pen and telephone.

True - but neither country is averse to the idea of bartering. China is the sole world producer of several rare earth elements and half the electronics on the planet - including chips used in guidance systems, GPS systems and advanced communication systems. And lets face it - in China they are pretty much breathing other people right now - a little empty and useless territory would go a long way as a trade.
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Offline PzLdr

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Great! Golf as foreign policy! "Teed up". Really?
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Offline mountaineer

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Here we go. Fore!!
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Obama Imposes New Sanctions On Russia
Charlotte Alter / TIME Magazine
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The U.S. has imposed targeted sanctions on Russian individuals and companies in the latest effort to pressure President Vladimir Putin to ease off Ukraine
Updated 9:06 a.m. ET

The Obama Administration on Monday leveled new sanctions against individuals and companies close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in what President Barack Obama called part of a “calibrated effort” to pressure Moscow to stop fomenting unrest in Ukraine.

Obama previewed the sanctions during a visit to the Philippines; they had been widely expected ever since he hinted at them last week. Obama said the targeted sanctions would affect Russian individuals and companies, and that they would also affect “high-tech defense exports” to Russia.

“The goal here is not to go after Mr. Putin, personally,” Obama said. “The goal is to change his calculus with respect to how the current actions that he’s engaging in in Ukraine could have an adverse impact on the Russian economy over the long haul.”

The White House said in a statement later that the sanctions were targeting seven government officials, including two people in Putin’s “inner circle,” for asset freezes and U.S. visa bans. The sanctions are also targeting 17 companies.

“The international community has been unified in its position that Russia must cease its illegal intervention and provocative actions in Ukraine,” The White House said. “The United States, working closely with its partners, remains prepared to impose still greater costs on Russia if the Russian leadership continues these provocations instead of de-escalating the situation.”

The President also said he hoped the sanctions would “encourage [Putin] to actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk when it comes to diplomatically resolving the crisis in Ukraine.”

But after previous sanctions failed to change Putin’s behavior, Obama conceded: “We don’t know yet whether it is going to work.”

Obama said that there could be broader sectoral sanctions on the banking and defense industries if Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine continues.
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SPQR

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True - but neither country is averse to the idea of bartering. China is the sole world producer of several rare earth elements and half the electronics on the planet .
Japan has recently found large deposits of rare earth deposits on their shore

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/26/5549318/china-restrictions-on-rare-earths-violate-trade-law
« Last Edit: April 29, 2014, 06:34:30 am by SPQR »