[ rfe/rl banner ]

West Targets Russia With Sanctions, Threats Over Crimea

March 06, 2014
by RFE/RL

Western leaders have threatened serious consequences against Russia if it fails to deescalate the situation in Ukraine's occupied peninsula of Crimea, where a disputed parliamentary vote to join Russia has heightened fears of conflict.

Ukraine's acting and interim national leaders had already condemned the vote by pro-Russian lawmakers in Crimea 'illegitimate' and have suggested they will block a related referendum.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the EU is suspending visa and cooperation negotiations with Russia and will consider asset freezes and travel bans if the Russian government does not start negotiations with Ukrainian authorities in the 'next few days.'

He also said the EU will sign an association pact with Ukraine before Ukraine holds elections in May.

Speaking after an emergency summit of EU leaders to discuss Russia's occupation of Crimea, Van Rompuy said such talks between Moscow and Kyiv to resolve the Ukraine crisis need to produce results within a 'limited timeframe.'

He said EU leaders had agreed to a three-tiered series of sanctions starting with an immediate suspension of talks.

Van Rompuy said Russia could expect 'a broad range of economic sanctions' if it further destabilizes the situation in Ukraine.

Crimean Lawmakers Coordinate With Russians To Push Annexation

The United States earlier announced the imposition of visa restrictions on individuals and institutions from Russia and Ukraine that it says are 'threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.'

The visa restrictions were announced as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed into a roughly 40-minute meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Rome, on the sidelines of a gathering to discuss Libya.

Lavrov said afterward Kerry had assured him there are no blacklists of Russian officials as yet. However, Lavrov said any intentions to impose sanctions were already a threat.

The White House also announced that President Barack Obama also signed an executive order that authorizes sanctions against 'individuals and entities responsible for activities undermining democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine.'

Earlier in the day, the parliament in Crimea voted to join Russia and hold a referendum on the topic on March 16 -- far earlier than had previously been suggested.

Announcing the outcome of the March 6 parliamentary vote, Crimea's First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliyev also said Ukrainian armed forces in Crimea will be considered 'occupiers' and must surrender or leave.

The Crimean lawmakers' move prompted an angry response from Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who called the vote 'illegitimate' and said Ukraine was 'prepared to protect our country.'

Yatsenyuk called Russia's actions 'military aggression' and an 'extensive, unacceptable use of Russian military force.'

'It is clear that no military option is on the table, but it's clear that it is up to the Russian government to make a step back and to make the first step to stabilize the situation in the region and not escalate further tension between Ukraine and Russia and further tension in the entire Europe,' Yatsenyuk, who took office amid crisis on February 27, said.

Yatsenyuk, on a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, was told that the North-Atlantic alliance 'stands by Ukraine's sovereignty [and] integrity.'

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, at a joint press conference after talks with Yatsenyuk, said the crisis in Ukraine was 'the gravest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.' Rasmussen called on Russia to halt the military escalation in Crimea and to 'refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine.'

In response to a question, Yatsenyuk said Ukraine is not discussing membership of the alliance, saying, 'It is not on our radar.'

Ukraine's acting president said the planned Crimean referendum was illegal, describing it as a farce and a crime organized by the Russian military. In a short televised address, Oleksander Turchynov said late on March 6 that the Ukrainian parliament would start procedures to dismiss the Crimean assembly and block the referendum.

The pro-Russian leadership in Crimea is not recognized by Ukraine's new central authorities, who have issued arrest warrants for the territory's prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, and its parliamentary speaker.

Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatars, said his community will not recognize the results of such a referendum.

Russia's forces have been occupying Crimea since February 28, and Moscow has declared illegitimate the government that emerged after embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia.

The 100-seat parliament voted 78-0, with eight abstentions, on joining Russia and the related referendum.

Pro-Russian Crimean politicians have suggested that some 11,000 'self-defense' troops had been deployed to help control all access points to the Crimean Peninsula.

Earlier this week, Aksyonov said 'self-defense units' in Crimea were armed with 'shields and sticks' and many had 'legally registered' weapons.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, UNIAN, and AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/eu-crimea-russia- ukraine-rompuy-us-sanctions/25288239.html

NEWSLETTER

Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

West Targets Russia With Sanctions, Threats Over Crimea