WP How much harm is the US attempting to inflict on the EU with this move? It is Europe that get's it's energy from Russia.
The United States on Wednesday increased sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine, despite ongoing European reluctance to take similar action so far.
The administration took the measures against a series of banks, energy and defense companies as European leaders, meeting in Brussels, discussed possible sanctions against a new list of individuals and a handful of companies tied to Russia’s annexation in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, as we.ll as possible restrictions on European financing for Russian development projects.
They targeted equity financing and debt financing with maturity of more than 90 days for two Russian banks — Gazprombank, the banking arm of Russia’s largest energy company, and state-owned VEB — and prohibited new debt from U.S. institutions with more than 90 days maturity for OAE Novatek, Russia largest independent natural gas producer, and Rosneft, the largest petroleum company.
The new measures also froze all U.S. assets of eight Russian defense firms, and prohibited U.S. persons or anyone in this country from dealing with them. Additional sanctions were applied to political entities and individuals in separatist regions of Ukraine.
Four senior Russian officials, including a senior figure in the Federal Security Service and the deputy chairman of the Russian Duma, or parliament, were also targeted.
A Russian diplomat reacted with fury(?doubtful) to the sanctions, news of which spread after midnight in Moscow, vowing that Russia would take similar measures against the United States that would be “quite painful and serious.”
“The new decision by the U.S. administration to lodge sanctions under false pretenses against a number of Russian businesses and individuals can’t be called anything other than outrageous and totally unacceptable,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news service.
In Russia, earlier sanctions against Russian individuals and officials had for the most part been shrugged off as an inconvenience, but not as steps that fundamentally altered Russia’s economic relationship to the world at large.
A senior administration official said that the new measures would not only “have a direct impact on the entities themselves,” but would have a “broader impact in the Russian economy...as the market recognizes that we are quite serious when we say that we are intent on imposing costs if the Russians don’t de-escalate the situation” in Ukraine.
This move comes hot on the heels of this BRICS bank being set up
- Leaders of the BRICS emerging market nations launched a $100 billion development bank and a currency reserve pool on Tuesday in their first concrete step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system. The bank aimed at funding infrastructure projects in developing nations will be based in Shanghai and India will preside over its operations for the first five years, followed by Brazil and then Russia, leaders of the five-country group announced at a summit.They also set up a $100 billion currency reserves pool to help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures.The long-awaited bank is the first major achievement of the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - since they got together in 2009 to press for a bigger say in the global financial order created by Western powers after World War Two and centered on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Is Europe ready to freeze this winter. Thanks to the US.