Free Republic

"China's state-owned banks are tightening curbs on funding to Russian clients as they fear being subjected to secondary sanctions from the U.S., according to a Tuesday report by Bloomberg... "...Chris Weafer, chief executive officer of strategic consultants Macro-Advisory Ltd., which focuses on Russia and the Eurasia region, previously told Newsweek that Russia should be wary of this increased reliance on China. "While China is eagerly buying energy and materials and selling Chinese-made goods to the Russia market, all of which suits Beijing, there is very little investment coming into Russia, certainly nothing like enough to replace the lost investment from...

WASHINGTON - President Biden’s top spokesperson refused to comment Monday on why two Russian billionaires associated with first son Hunter Biden have escaped US sanctions over the year-old war in Ukraine. The Post asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for an explanation after reporting fresh details last week on the association between the Biden family and oligarchs Vladimir Yevtushenkov and Yelena Baturina. “Could [you] share the reason why President Biden hasn’t sanctioned the Russian billionaires Vladimir Yevtushenkov and Yelena Baturina?” The Post asked Jean-Pierre at her regular briefing. Yevtushenkov and Baturina partnered with Hunter Biden while searching for US property investments...

An Arizona judge on Tuesday rejected a request to sanction Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) over her lawsuit challenging her defeat. Maricopa County and Katie Hobbs (D), in her capacities as both governor-elect and secretary of state, had asked the judge to require Lake and her legal team to pay all parties’ attorneys’ fees, arguing the suit was groundless and made in bad faith. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson in Tuesday’s decision reiterated that Lake did not meet the burden of providing clear and convincing evidence of her claims necessary to win the case, but he said...

The European Union has threatened to levy sanctions against Twitter following the suspension of several establishment media journalists over allegedly sharing private location of Elon Musk’s jet. On Thursday evening, Twitter suspended journalists from CNN, Mashable, New York Times, Washington Post, Vox, and former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann for alleged violations of the platform’s updated terms of service on doxxing, or the exposing of private details such as location or address on the internet. “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Musk tweeted Wednesday. “This includes posting links to...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday in an interview with Fox News that the U.S. is the “accelerator of the sanction policies” against Russia. “So far, I think that the United States of America is the accelerator of the sanction policies and I think they do more than any other country. And this is the way it should be because they are the most powerful country right now. I see the same support with respect to sanctions from the United Kingdom,” said Zelensky.

Western planes worth $13bn stranded in Russia, analysts say 10th March 2022 - Author: Matt Sheehan Analysts at data and analytics company Russell Group have reported that 589 Western-built aircraft with a market value of approximately $13 billion are currently on the ground in Russian airports. Flights to and from Russia have been banned by nearly all Western nations in response to the country’s widely-condemned invasion of Ukraine. The result is that hundreds of leased planes in Russia that are owned by European companies stuck on the ground in the country. And Russell Group warns that the aviation war market...

President Biden, in a new interview published Saturday, warned that there is "no sanction that is immediate," just as the U.S. and allies are using sanctions as their main tool to target Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. "You have two options. Start a Third World War, go to war with Russia physically. Or two, make sure that a country that acts so contrary to international law ends up paying a price for having done it," he claimed in an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen when discussing the options for dealing with the invasion by Moscow.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told reporters on Friday his country’s government will not join those of other nations in imposing sanctions on Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, TASS news agency reported. “We have familiarized ourselves with the actions of our international partners following the launch of military action in Ukraine, meaning economic and financial sanctions [against Russia]. I want to make it clear and unambiguous that in light of [our] national interests, Georgia does not intend to participate in financial and economic sanctions,” Garibashvili said on February 25.

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) stated that the sanctions against Russia announced by President Joe Biden “cannot be the end of it” and called for the sanctioning of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, “so it’s a clear message to Putin, you’re not going to get it online anytime.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not watch a speech by U.S. President Joe Biden announcing sanctions on Tuesday and is currently in a meeting, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency.

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that if President Joe Biden wants to work with Republicans, he can work with Republicans to sanction Russia for its buildup against Ukraine. Graham said, “I mean, the news conference was a disaster on multiple levels. But it’s not the news conference. He’s been on the world stage, Joe Biden, for 40 years.”

According to American officials on condition of anonymity, the United States will adjust the sanctions against other countries so that they are targeted and do not entail collateral economic damage, do not bring discomfort to ordinary citizens. Decisions on the use of restrictive measures will be made based on the views of America's allies, and not at their own discretion, as did former President Donald Trump. Under the current conditions, the easing of anti-Russian sanctions is undesirable for Ukraine. Crash of Ukraine's expectations After the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the armed conflict in Donbas in 2014, a...

The European Commission may impose sanctions on US President Joe Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Possible sanctions include a ban on entry and transit through the territory of the European Union, as well as the freezing of all funds and economic resources that belong to them, are held or controlled in the EU. This was reported by Ukrainian News with reference to EU Reporter. According to EU Reporter, former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin filed a complaint with the European Commission over the violation of his rights due to illegal dismissal in 2016. Shokin states that he...

The United States has removed nearly 2.7 million barrels (per day) of Iranian oil from global markets as a result of Washington’s decision to reimpose sanctions on all purchases of Iran’s crude, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday. In an interview with MSNBC, Pompeo said the US government was confident it could continue with its strategy. “We have managed to take almost 2.7 million barrels of crude oil off of the market, denying Iran the wealth to create their terror campaign around the world, and we have managed to keep the oil markets fully supplied,” Pompeo said....

EXECUTIVE ORDER BLOCKING PROPERTY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF VENEZUELA... All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in... unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens determined to meet one or more of the criteria in section 1(b) of this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and...

The Senate late Tuesday will hold a procedural vote on a bill that supports Israel by allowing state and local governments to divest from entities that boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank. The provision is part of legislation numbered “S.1” that was to be the very first bill senators debate in the 116th Congress. In addition to the BDS language, it includes several Middle East security provisions such as new authorities for sanctioning Bashar Assad's regime in Syria and reauthorization of security assistance to Israel. But Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ben Cardin,...

U.S. Sanctions Start to Pinch Shipping in Iran Tanker and container operators prepare to wind down business with Iran ahead of U.S. sanctions By Costas Paris and Joanne Chiu May 29, 2018 5:30 a.m. ET It will be months before new U.S. sanctions against Iran take hold, but global shipping operators are already pulling back from the big oil-exporting nation. The world’s two biggest shipping lines, Denmark’s Maersk Line and Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Co., said they were winding down general cargo shipments, while tanker owners said they plan to move their vessels to other oil-producing countries in the Middle East...

Trump to China: Lock down your border with North Korea until after I cut a nuclear deal with Kim Jong-Un China's help could make or break Trump's plans for a nuclear deal, for which the president wants a Nobel Peace Prize Trump needs China to pile the economic pressure on Kim Jong-Un to get the North Korean president to the negotiating table The border demand could be Trump's way of taking Beijing's temperature on how much help they're provide in pressuring North Korea Doubts remain about the June 12 summit in Singapore amid reports Trump may withdraw due to concerns...

Doomed? Why Iran's Economic Mess Will Get Worse Simon Constable The matter at hand is the decision earlier this month by the Trump administration not to certify the so-called nuclear deal, and that means Iran will soon be subject to harsh U.S. sanctions. Overall the result will be a squeezed economy. Current situation Even the latest official statistics for the Iranian economy don't look good. The unemployment rate stands at 11.9% and the inflation rate at 8.3%, according to TradingEconomics.com. However, at least some of the government figures may be more aspirational than actual. Take, for instance, the inflation rate....

GERMAN BANK TO HALT IRAN TRANSACTIONS IN JULY BY REUTERS MAY 18, 2018 21:25 BERLIN - Germany's No. 2 lender DZ Bank said on Friday it will suspend financial transactions with Iran in July following U.S. President Donald Trump's pullout from the nuclear deal with Tehran. Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the accord and his order that sanctions be reimposed have led several European companies to announce their exit from Iran, including French oil major Total earlier this week. "We will completely suspend our foreign payment transactions related to Iran starting July 1st," said a spokesman for Frankfurt-based...