Free Republic

PARIS -- There are fewer things more pathetic than watching someone take a running dive off a high board only to end in a spectacular belly flop and still think that they're scoring a perfect 10. That's U.S. President Barack Obama right now on the issue of sanctions against Russia. It's a worrying attitude that increasingly permeates Western culture. Europe and America supported a coup d'état against a democratically elected government and president in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, which in turn led to Russia backing a democratic vote March 16 in Crimea -- the southeast corner of the country...

A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow may change its stance in the Iranian nuclear talks amid tensions with the West. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted Wednesday as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia didn’t want to use the Iranian nuclear talks to “raise stakes,” but may have to do so in response to the actions by the United States and the European Union. The statement is the most serious threat of retaliation by Moscow after the U.S. and the EU announced sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

The State Duma has passed a motion suggesting that the US and EU extend the freshly introduced sanctions to all Russian MPs rather than a limited group of officials, defying western pressure just hours before Russia and Crimea signed a federation treaty. The motion was supported by a unanimous vote on Tuesday morning. It was prepared the day before by all four parliamentary parties after representatives of the United States and the European Union said they were slapping sanctions, such as visa bans and asset freezes, on a number of Russian officials who are seen as “key ideologists and architects”...

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin denied Tuesday that Russia was contemplating sanctions against U.S. and European officials to retaliate for banking and travel restrictions imposed on officials involved in staging Sunday's referendum in Crimea, in which voters overwhelmingly voted for joining Russia. The Foreign Ministry, however, said in a statement that Russia would retaliate in response to the sanctions, which targeted more than a dozen Russian and Ukrainian officials. Rogozin told journalists that the Russian government was not considering imposing sanctions against the U.S. and the European Union because it does not view the asset freezes and travel bans seriously.

It's time for the United States and its European allies to raise or fold. Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly called their bluff on Tuesday, announcing steps for his country to annex the Crimean Peninsula from neighboring Ukraine. President Barack Obama and European allies had warned such a move would bring tougher sanctions and diplomatic isolation, but there was little immediate response Tuesday to Putin's bold pronouncement in the Russian parliament. The White House announced that Obama invited leaders of the G7 industrial powers to meet next week on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands to discuss...

Exclusive: U.S. Sanctions Actually Target Putin’s Domestic Rivals B. Christopher Agee 3-17-14 While the move was sold as a clear message to Russian officials responsible for the current Ukraine crisis, the end result seems to bear little resemblance to that goal… Barack Obama announced a series of sanctions against officials in Russia who he claims have played a role in the continued unrest in the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine. The move came one day after a majority voters in the region supported a referendum to unite with Russia. In a statement Monday, Obama said the U.S. would not recognize the...

MOSCOW – Russia’s deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama’s sanction against him today asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list. The Obama administration hit 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials with sanctions today as punishment for Russia’s support of Crimea’s referendum. Among them: aides to President Vladimir Putin, a top government official, senior lawmakers, Crimean officials, the ousted president of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian politician and businessman allegedly tied to violence against protesters in Kiev. It remains to be seen whether the sanctions will dissuade Russia from annexing Crimea, but one an early clue that they...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday froze the U.S. assets of seven Russian officials, including top advisers to President Vladimir Putin, for their support of Crimea's vote to secede from Ukraine. The sanctions are the most comprehensive since the end of the Cold War. Obama said he was moving to "increase the cost" to Russia, and he warned that more people could face financial punishment.

KIEV, Ukraine— Obama on Monday imposed sanctions on 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials blamed for Russia's military incursion into Crimea, including two top aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions were the most visible sign of U.S. anger at Russia's attempt to absorb the Crimea region of southern Ukraine, reflecting the deepest plunge in U.S.-Russian relations since the Cold War. The sanctions came in an executive order signed by Obama a day after a Crimea referendum on Sunday aimed at allowing Russia to annex the autonomous region, a vote that the United States says was illegal and would never...

DAILY PRICE REPORT Today’s AM fix was USD 1371.00, EUR 982.30 and GBP 821.70 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1355.75, EUR 977.47 and GBP 817.01 per ounce.Gold rose $20.10 or 1.5% yesterday to $1,367.10/oz. Silver surged 47 cents or 2.2% to $21.28/oz.Putin and a Gold BarGold extended gains to a third session today, reaching fresh six month highs as investors hedged geopolitical risks and Chinese economic slowdown fears. Gold hit $1,375.20, its highest since September 10 and has gained 14% so far this year on global geopolitical and macroeconomic risk.A significant bond default in China and a weak...

SNIPPET: "A Reston man who federal officials said sold $250,000 worth of machinery parts from American manufacturers to Iranian companies pleaded guilty to felony charges in U.S. Federal Court in Alexandria on Thursday. Vahid Hosseini, 62, ran a business called Sabern Industries from his home in Reston, FBI officials said."

In 1980, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter came up with a way to retaliate: stopping grain sales to Moscow. The boycott, said Commerce Secretary Philip Klutznick, would prove to the world that "aggression is costly" and induce the Soviets to "halt their aggression." The Soviets did halt their aggression and pull out of Afghanistan. But that didn't happen until nine years later, and it had nothing to do with the grain embargo. American farmers suffered because their prices dropped, but the Kremlin managed to buy grain elsewhere. So the following year, President Ronald Reagan lifted the...

(Reuters) - Russia said any U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine will boomerang back on the United States and that Crimea has the right to self-determination as armed men tried to seize another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula. In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against "hasty and reckless steps" that could harm Russian-American relations, the foreign ministry said on Friday. "Sanctions...would inevitably hit the United States like a boomerang," it added.

Vladimir Putin has mocked diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis as Russia threatened to disrupt European gas supplies by cutting off sales to Kiev over its unpaid debts. The Russian president said through his official spokesman that, despite deep disagreements with the West, he did not want a confrontation over Ukraine to spiral into a “new cold war”. Nevertheless Dmitry Peskov ridiculed Western demands for direct talks between the Kremlin and the new Kiev government, claiming that the loss of credibility involved “puts a smile on our face”. The remarks were broadcast during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic...

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Crimea's parliament voted on Thursday to join Russia, and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum in 10 days, in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian region that drew a sharp riposte from U.S. President Barack Obama. Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine, including bans on travel to the United States and freezing of their U.S. assets. He echoed European Union leaders and the pro-Western government in Ukraine in declaring that the proposed referendum would violate international law. .....

President Obama on Thursday signed an executive order readying sanctions and visa restrictions on individuals the administration said were responsible for “destabilizing Ukraine.” “The President has signed an Executive Order that authorizes sanctions on individuals and entities threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine; contributing to the misappropriation of state assets of Ukraine; or purporting to assert governmental authority over any part of Ukraine without authorization from the Ukrainian government in Kyiv,” said the White House in a statement.

Obama places restrictions and sanctions on anyone "threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."

A top Russian lawmaker has revealed he is working on a bill that would freeze the assets of European and American companies operating in Russia in reply to Western economic sanctions. The chairman of the upper house committee for constitutional law, Andrey Klishas, is sure that Russia must have an enough leverage to deal with the threat of sanctions coming from foreign countries.A team of lawyers are currently preparing a separate federal bill that would allow the Russian president and government to confiscate foreign owned property in Russia, including assets belonging to private companies, the senator told the RIA Novosti...

Israel’s policies cannot be compared to the racist internal policies of Apartheid South Africa. The Afrikaans word “apartheid” means “the state of being apart.” As well, apartheid was a system of racial segregation, through legislation, by the National Party of South Africa between 1948-1994. Under this system of governing, political representation for non-whites in South Africa ceased in 1970. Furthermore, in that same year, non-whites were denied citizenship. This racist policy forced the majority of non-white people to live in, and become members of, 10 tribally-based bantustans, or “homelands.” The white-led minority, represented by the National Party, also segregated education,...

This post is about the rank hypocrisy we see in the West. And self-destructive hypocrisy. We don't criticize our enemies. Instead, we try to force the surrender of our allies. Thus the title, Chicken Kiev. The immediate setting is of course the Ukraine but this has happened before. During the 1970's through 1990's college campuses and other fashionable places were full of anti-apartheid movements. Since 2005 this has been replaced by anti-Israel "BDS" movement. At various times similar groups have championed more obscure causes such as rights of American Indians. The facts in these various situations are confusing and somewhat...