DEVELOPMENTS
— President Barack Obama expanded economic sanctions against Moscow, targeting President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff and 19 other individuals as well as a Russian bank that provides them support.
— Within minutes of Obama’s speech, Russia retaliated by banning entry to nine U.S. officials and lawmakers.
— Pro-Russian forces seized three Ukrainian warships and Ukraine said its troops were being threatened in Crimea, which Russia annexed earlier this week.
— German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Union was readying further sanctions and that the G-8 forum of leading economies had been suspended indefinitely. Putin was due to host his counterparts at a G-8 summit in June.
News services
Raising the stakes in an East-West showdown over Ukraine, President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered economic sanctions against nearly two dozen members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and a major Russian bank that provides them support. He warned that more sweeping penalties against Russia’s robust energy sector could follow.
Russia retaliated swiftly, imposing entry bans on several American lawmakers and senior White House officials.
Pro-Russian forces seized three Ukrainian warships Thursday in Crimea, which Moscow annexed earlier this week after residents there voted to leave Ukraine. U.S. officials now acknowledge privately that there is little chance of Russia giving up the region.
The dispute over Crimea goes beyond the United States and Russia. European Union leaders said they, too, were ready to close in on Putin’s associates, announcing plans to impose travel bans and asset freezes on more Russians involved in the territorial clash with Ukraine.
The Western aim is twofold: to ratchet up the costs for Putin’s annexation of Crimea and to head off any further Russian military inroads into Ukraine.
“The world is watching with grave concern as Russia has positioned its military in a way that could lead to further incursions into southern and eastern Ukraine,” Obama said, speaking from the South Lawn of the White House.
Thursday’s announcements deepened the standoff, which has become one of the biggest political crises in Europe since the Cold War.
Putin, rather than backing off as the West warns of costs, has defiantly moved military forces into Crimea, backed a referendum in which the Crimean people overwhelming voted to join Russia and then signed a treaty formally absorbing the strategically important peninsula into Russia.
The more pressing concern for the West is stopping Putin from pushing into other Ukrainian areas with large ethnic Russian populations. Thousands of Russian troops are currently positioned along Ukraine’s eastern border.
The Pentagon said Russia’s defense minister assured Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that those forces have no intention of crossing into Ukrainian territory and are only in the region to conduct military exercises. The two men spoke by phone for an hour.
The U.S. had received similar assurances from top Kremlin officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, before Russian troops moved into Crimea.
Tensions in the region remained high despite the release of a Ukrainian naval commander held by pro-Russian forces.
Shots were fired but there were no casualties as the Ukrainian corvette Khmelnitsky was seized in Sevastopol. Another ship, the Lutsk, was also surrounded by pro-Russian forces. A photographer later saw Ukrainian servicemen disembarking a third ship, the Ternopil corvette.
The penalties announced Thursday by the U.S. and Europe build on an initial round of narrower sanctions levied earlier this week. While European officials did not immediately release names, the U.S. listed some of Putin’s closest associates.
Among the 20 individuals sanctioned were Sergei Ivanov, the Russian president’s chief of staff, as well as Arkady Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, both lifelong Putin friends whose companies have amassed billions of dollars in government contracts.
Putin has not been personally targeted by the first two rounds of U.S. sanctions. In fact, American sanctions on heads of state are rare, largely reserved for instances where the U.S. is seeking a change in government leadership.
Russians have made light of previous U.S. sanctions on individuals, and targeted American lawmakers reacted in a similar fashion Thursday.
Said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: “I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off.”
Others targeted included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer and the president’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes.
Obama also signed a new executive order that would allow him to sanction key Russian industries, actions that could have a harsher impact on that country’s economy. Senior administration officials said Russia’s energy, financial services and metals and mining sectors are among the industries that could be targeted.
“Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community,” Obama said.
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