Free Republic

Europe’s ban on Russia’s diesel arrived painlessly on Sunday. Although the EU cut off its biggest supplier, diesel futures prices in the bloc fell 1.6% on Monday, amounting to a 20% loss over the past two weeks as demand in the region has waned... The diesel ban comes two months after the bloc placed an embargo on seaborne crude oil imports from Russia, as part of a package of sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia accounted for 29% of the region’s total diesel imports last year, data from Rystad Energy shows.... The bloc is already importing significantly...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered global condemnation and tough sanctions aimed at denting Moscow’s war chest. Yet Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels, by far its biggest export, soared to records in the first 100 days of its war on Ukraine, driven by a windfall from oil sales amid surging prices, a new analysis shows.Russia earned what is very likely a record 93 billion euros in revenue from exports of oil, gas and coal in the first 100 days of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, according to data analyzed by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a research...

The Senate is struggling to quickly pass popular bipartisan legislation to suspend normal trade relations with Russia, likely further stalling a top priority of President Joe Biden as he conducts NATO meetings in Europe. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is preventing the chamber from approving the bill before senators leave Washington for the weekend over his opposition to language in the measure regarding sanctions for global human-rights abusers. Paul, who generally opposes sanctions as a means of punishing a foreign nation, is demanding that the House-passed measure be amended to restrict what he sees as an overly broad authorization for executive-branch...

So is every top Democrat who accused President Trump of Russian collusion. “A single, ominous question now hangs over the White House: What could possibly cause President Trump to put the interests of Russia over those of the United States?” Senator Schumer insinuated in 2018. Why is Schumer putting Russia’s interests ahead of those of the United States by blocking Nord Stream 2 sanctions on Putin’s pet pipeline into Europe? Schumer, along with a number of other top Democrats, is a beneficiary of campaign contributions from top Democrat fundraiser Vincent Roberti whose lobbying firm was paid over $8.5 million by...

In her Wall Street Journal column “Lifting the Steele curtain” this past Friday Kim Strassel called the dossier “one of the dirtiest tricks in U.S. political history.” At the heart of her column she focused on the shrewdly evil introduction of the dossier during the campaign. Analyze this: “Details from the dossier were not reported before Election Day,” ran a recent CNN story. Hillary Clinton herself stressed the point in a recent “Daily Show” appearance. The dossier, she said, is “part of what happens in a campaign where you get information that may or may not be useful and you...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Moscow will order 10 U.S. diplomats to leave Russia in a retaliatory response to the U.S. sanctions. Lavrov also said that 8 U.S. officials will be added to its sanctions list and move to restrict and stop the activities of American nongovernment organizations from interfering in Russia’s politics. While Russia has a possibility to take “painful measures” against the American business in Russia, it wouldn’t immediately move to do that, he added.

“The latest round of U.S. sanctions was a mostly symbolic exercise,” Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at The Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC on Friday. “Sanctions on Russian individuals and companies are irrelevant, as these people and firms have no ties to the US and probably no intention to ever use the U.S. dollar or to have bank accounts in the U.S.” Demarais added that the sanctions on sovereign debt are less stringent than the initial market reaction would suggest, since they only target the primary debt market and can therefore “easily be circumvented via the secondary market.”

The revelations of the so-called Panama Papers that are roiling the world’s political and financial elites this week include important facts about Team Clinton. This unprecedented trove of documents purloined from a shady Panama law firm that arranged tax havens, and perhaps money laundering, for the globe’s super-rich includes juicy insights into how Russia’s elite hides its ill-gotten wealth. Almost lost among the many revelations is the fact that Russia’s biggest bank uses The Podesta Group as its lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Though hardly a household name, this firm is well known inside the Beltway, not least because its CEO...

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin: "The United States is engaged in an ongoing effort to counter malicious actors working at the behest of the Russian Federation and its military and intelligence units to increase Russia’s offensive cyber capabilities. The entities designated today have directly contributed to improving Russia’s cyber and underwater capabilities through their work with the FSB and therefore jeopardize the safety and security of the United States and our allies.” “The United States is committed to aggressively targeting any entity or individual working at the direction of the FSB whose work threatens the United States and will continue...

President Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as “international economic raiding.” Preparations to punish Russia anew for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria caused consternation at the White House. Haley had said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that sanctions on Russian companies behind the equipment related to Assad’s alleged chemical weapons attack would be announced Monday by Treasury...

United States' Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday the Trump administration will announce more sanctions against Russia on Monday. On CBS's "Face the Nation," Haley said the Treasury Department will announce the new sanctions and insisted the US has sent "a strong message" about the use of chemical weapons.

The Trump administration announced new sanctions Friday related to Russia's occupation of Crimea and ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine, just days ahead of a congressionally mandated deadline for the implementation a separate, broad array of Russia-related sanctions. In a press release, the Treasury Department said it was designating 21 individuals and nine entities under existing authorities, including Russian government officials and Russian companies connected to projects in the disputed Crimean Peninsula. The agency also sanctioned senior leaders of two Ukrainian separatist groups, the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, as well as people and entities alleged to have...

Donald Trump was just 11 minutes into his presidency when his choice for national security adviser, Michael Flynn, texted a former business partner to say an ambitious U.S. collaboration with Russia to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East was "good to go," according to a new whistleblower account. As Trump delivered his inaugural address, says the unnamed whistleblower, Flynn directed Alex Copson, managing director of ACU Strategic Partners, to inform their business partners "to put things in place." The whistleblower also says that Flynn assured Copson that U.S. sanctions on Russia that could block the nuclear project would be...

Trump Thanks Putin for Firing Embassy Employees: ‘We’ll Save a Lot of Money’ BY: Charles Fain Lehman August 10, 2017 5:36 pm President Donald Trump Thursday said he wanted to thank Russian President Vladimir Putin for reducing his payroll by firing U.S. embassy staff in Moscow. Putin ordered the cut of 755 personnel at the end of July, in direct response to new sanctions on Russia passed overwhelmingly by the House and Senate. The sanctions, which Trump signed three days after the cut, were designed in part as a response to Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Trump was asked...

Following the bill signed into law by President Donald Trump imposing sanctions on Russia, Vladimir Putin announced the expulsion of 755 U.S. diplomats from Russia on July 30. Trump’s response to what would seem to be a hostile action on the part of Russia? Thank you. During a question and answer session with the press pool on Thursday, Trump appeared to be serious while saying that he appreciated Putin’s decision to expel the diplomats as it would allow the U.S. to cut costs. “I want to thank him because we’re trying to cut down on payroll,” Trump said. “And as...

President Trump on Wednesday signed a bill imposing sanctions on Russia, after the legislation overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate. The stiff financial sanctions were championed by lawmakers in both parties, and Trump's signature could escalate tensions with Moscow -- which already has ordered a reduction in the number of U.S. diplomats in Russia. The bill itself targets Iran and North Korea as well as Russia. But a cornerstone of the legislation was a provision barring Trump from easing or waiving the additional penalties on Russia unless Congress agrees. The provisions were included to assuage concerns among lawmakers that the...

BERLIN (Reuters) - New sanctions against Russia proposed by U.S. lawmakers and which could harm European firms violate international law and the European Commission should consider counter-measures, the German economy minister was quoted on Monday as saying. "We consider this as being against international law, plain and simple," Brigitte Zypries told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain. "Of course we don't want a trade war. But it is important the European Commission now looks into countermeasures." The German government and business leaders have said the new sanctions passed this month by the U.S. House of Representatives could prevent German companies from...

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on sweeping sanctions legislation to punish Russia for its election meddling and aggression toward its neighbors, they said Saturday, defying the White House’s argument that President Trump needs flexibility to adjust the sanctions to fit his diplomatic initiatives with Moscow.The new legislation sharply limits the president’s ability to suspend or terminate the sanctions — a remarkable handcuffing by a Republican-led Congress six months into Mr. Trump’s tenure. It is also the latest Russia-tinged turn for a presidency consumed by investigations into the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian officials last year.Mr. Trump could...

CLAIM That Hillary Clinton opposed sanctions against Russia because of speaking fees her husband received from a Russian bank, and that the Clinton campaign used undue influence to kill a Bloomberg story about the incident. RATING UNPROVEN ORIGIN On 18 July 2017, Fox News published a story reporting that former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had “sided” with Russia against a U.S. sanctions law known as the Magnitsky Act because her husband, former President Bill Clinton, received $500,000 in speaking fees in 2010 from a Russian investment bank. The story, authored by the same Fox reporter...

Democrat super-lobbyist Tony Podesta was paid $170,000 over a six-month period last year to represent Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, seeking to end one of the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against that country, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned. Podesta, founder and chairman of the Podesta Group, is listed as a key lobbyist on behalf of Sberbank, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. His firm received more than $24 million in fees in 2016, much of it coming from foreign governments, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.