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European Union Pushes Forward With Tougher Sanctions on Russia
European Union Pushes Forward With Tougher Sanctions on Russia
(about 7 hours later)
BRUSSELS — European leaders agreed on Thursday to go ahead with additional economic sanctions meant to punish Russia for its role in promoting separatist warfare in eastern Ukraine, officials in Brussels and Moscow said.
BRUSSELS — The United States and Europe agreed on Thursday to place additional economic sanctions on Russia over its role in promoting separatist warfare in eastern Ukraine despite a fragile new cease-fire that went into effect last week.
The measures will take effect on Friday when they are published in the Official Journal of the European Union. That final step had been delayed for nearly two weeks, most recently because some European leaders wanted to assess compliance with a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine before going ahead.
European leaders overcame resistance among some of their colleagues who wanted to continue delaying additional measures to see if the shaky truce, negotiated in Minsk, Belarus,` holds. President Obama then followed suit shortly afterward by announcing that he would match the new European moves when they take effect on Friday.
The cease-fire between government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels appears to be generally holding, though there have been sporadic reports of violations from both sides.
“We are watching closely developments since the announcement of the cease-fire and agreement in Minsk, but we have yet to see conclusive evidence that Russia has ceased its efforts to destabilize Ukraine,” Mr. Obama said. He added: “If Russia fully implements its commitments, these sanctions can be rolled back. If instead Russia continues its aggressive actions and violations of international law, the costs will continue to rise.”
In Washington, President Obama said in a written statement on Thursday that the United States would also tighten its sanctions against Russia and would announce specifics on Friday.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, the body representing the European Union’s leaders, said the sanctions to be put into effect on Friday would be reviewed by diplomats before the end of the month and could be revised swiftly if events warranted. “We have always stressed the reversibility and scalability of our restrictive measures,” he said.
The European sanctions are meant to further crimp the ability of Russian businesses and banks to gain access to Western capital markets, and will block exports to Russia of certain high-technology products. Twenty-four Russian officials who were not subject to previous sanctions will be banned from traveling in the West and have their overseas financial assets frozen, according to a diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the formal announcement. The diplomat said that Russia’s energy industry, and especially deepwater drilling for oil, would once again be a primary target.
Neither side publicly announced the specific actions to be taken, leaving that until Friday, but officials said they would be aimed at Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors.
In a statement, Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, the body representing the union’s leaders, confirmed that the new sanctions would be put into effect on Friday, but they would be reviewed by diplomats before the end of the month and could be revised swiftly if warranted.
Both the United States and Europe will further restrict Russian access to credit markets for loans maturing in more than 30 days, according to officials briefed on the plans. The United States will add Sberbank, Russia’s largest, to its list of institutions subject to the limits, according to the officials.
“We have always stressed the reversibility and scalability of our restrictive measures,” Mr. Van Rompuy said.
The United States and Europe will both further tighten restrictions first imposed in July on the export of energy technology that would help Russia develop its Arctic, deep sea and shale oil reserves, officials said. Europe will ban 24 more Russian officials from traveling to its member states and freeze any assets held there, according to a diplomat familiar with the plan.
The Kremlin lost no time on Thursday in saying that it would retaliate. Although Russian officials did not announce any specifics, they have previously threatened to ban flights by Western airlines over Russian airspace — potentially closing off an enormous stretch of territory and forcing long detours for flights between Europe and eastern Asia.
The Kremlin lost no time in vowing to retaliate.
Although Russian officials did not announce any specifics, they have previously threatened to ban flights by Western airlines over Russian airspace, potentially closing off an enormous stretch of territory and forcing costly detours for long-haul flights between Europe and eastern Asia.
Andrey Belousov, a senior economic aide to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, said Thursday that another response might be to ban imports of automobiles to Russia, which is a huge market for used cars from Europe and Japan.
Andrey Belousov, a senior economic aide to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, said Thursday that another response might be to ban imports of automobiles to Russia, which is a huge market for used cars from Europe and Japan.
“We have a full series of nonagricultural products, where our, above all European, partners depend more on Russia, than Russia on them,” Mr. Belousov said at an economic forum in the Russian city of Samara, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. “This concerns, for instance, the import of automobiles, above all used cars.”
“We have a full series of nonagricultural products, where our, above all European, partners depend more on Russia, than Russia on them,” Mr. Belousov said at an economic forum in the Russian city of Samara, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. “This concerns, for instance, the import of automobiles, above all, used cars.”
Russia has already banned a wide variety of food and agricultural imports, including meat, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway, as retaliation for earlier rounds of sanctions. Japan has so far been exempted from those measures, though it too has imposed some sanctions on Russia.
Russia has already banned a variety of food and agricultural imports, including meat, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway, as retaliation for earlier rounds of sanctions.
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr Lukashevich, denounced the new Western sanctions at a briefing in Moscow on Thursday, saying the measures were contrary to Europe’s interests. He accused Russia’s critics of using the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine as a pretext for inflicting unjustified economic harm on Russia.
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr Lukashevich, denounced the new Western sanctions at a briefing in Moscow. He accused Russia’s critics of using the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine as a pretext for inflicting unjustified economic harm on Russia.
President Obama’s statement said that the United States "will deepen and broaden sanctions in Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors” and that the measures “will increase Russia’s political isolation, as well as the economic costs to Russia, especially in areas of importance to President Putin and those close to him.”
The United States has generally been more aggressive than Europe in seeking to penalize Russia for its role in Ukraine. European nations have tended to move more guardedly, in part because they have closer economic ties to Russia and European businesses have more to lose in the event of retaliation by Moscow.
“We are implementing these new measures in light of Russia’s actions to further destabilize Ukraine over the last month, including through the presence of heavily armed Russian forces in eastern Ukraine,” Mr. Obama said. “We are watching closely developments since the announcement of the ceasefire and agreement in Minsk, but we have yet to see conclusive evidence that Russia has ceased its efforts to destabilize Ukraine.”
During deliberations among the Europeans on the latest round of sanctions, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany argued vociferously in favor of moving ahead without waiting to see if the cease-fire would hold. American officials said Russia still had 1,000 troops inside Ukraine and that Moscow had made it clear it had no intention of reversing its annexation of Crimea.
The United States has generally been more aggressive than Europe in seeking to punish Russia for its role in Ukraine. European nations have tended to move more guardedly, in part because they generally have much closer economic ties to Russia than the United States does, and European businesses have much more to lose in the event of retaliation by Moscow.
While Ms. Merkel prevailed, the provisional nature of the European Union’s action was underscored at a news briefing, when a European official detailed how the sanctions would be reviewed for possible revision or repeal almost from the moment they are imposed.
The provisional nature of the European Union’s action was underscored at a news briefing in Brussels on Thursday afternoon, where an official of the union detailed how the sanctions would be reviewed for possible revision or repeal almost from the moment they are imposed.
“The work will start pretty soon,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the formal publication of the sanctions. The official would not give an estimate of how long the review would take, but said, “I think that the bulk of the work is expected to be done through the month of September.” All 28 member nations would have to agree on any changes.
“The work will start pretty soon,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the formal publication of the sanctions. “The next step is the assessment of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the peace plan,” the official said, adding, “Obviously, the question of whether and at what time any proposals will be made depends on, first of all, the comprehensive review, and secondly on the developments on the ground.”
The official said good news from Ukraine might make the decision easier: “We have seen the first positive steps that could pave the way in what we are hoping could become a sustainable political solution, but at the moment this is still very much a developing situation.”
The official would not give an estimate of how long the review would take, but “I think that the bulk of the work is expected to be done through the month of September.” All 28 member nations would have to agree on any changes to the sanctions, just as they did to impose them.
The official said some good news from Ukraine might make the decision easier: “We have seen the first positive steps that could pave the way in what we are hoping could become a sustainable political solution, but at the moment, this is still very much a developing situation.”
In an interview with the Russian business daily Vedomosti that was published on Monday, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev warned that a ban on flights through Russian airspace would be devastating for Western airlines, while the West’s measures would achieve nothing in the end.
“Sanctions absolutely do not help to establish peace in Ukraine,” Mr. Medvedev said. “They miss the target, and the absolute majority of politicians understand this. There is just an inertia of thought and, unfortunately, a desire to use force in international affairs.”
