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While the White House has continually threatened further sanctions against Russia for non-de-escalation (even as it un-de-escalates itself), the specifics of the additional sanctions have been sparse. German CEO warnings over blowback from economic sanctions... the "nonsense" of replacing Russian gas with US gas... the Russian warnings of "interdependence" and "boomerangs"... all reduce the West's arsenal of financial sanctions. But, as The Times of London reports, perhaps the US has found a crucial pain point for Putin - a sanctions regime that would target Putin's personal wealth, which includes a reported $40 billion stashed in Swiss bank accounts. As The...

On Tuesday morning, a plane owned in trust by the Bank of Utah showed up in a very visible area of the Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran. What was it doing there exactly? Nobody knows, reports The New York Times. Under President Barack Obama, the United States has eased some of the long-standing punitive economic sanctions against Iran. Still, very little American — or European — economic activity is allowed inside the religious theocracy. The Bank of Utah is certainly no Wells Fargo. The Ogden-based community bank has all of 13 branches including...

Russia is rolling out two major projects—a gas pipeline and a Crimea deep water port—with China, as EU countries and the US weigh options on economic sanctions. Russia’s ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told EUobserver on Wednesday (16 April) that work on the “Power of Siberia” pipeline and the Chinese construction of a 25-meter-deep port in Crimea are proceeding as normal despite the Ukraine crisis. Describing the pipeline as a “mega-project”, he said it will pump 60 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year from the Kovykta and Tchayandinskoe gas fields to Russia’s far east, with a branch...

The Commission is close to finalizing proposals for economic and trade sanctions regarding Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia. A final decision by member states is expected soon, diplomats told EurActiv. At their meeting held yesterday (14 April), EU ministers said they were looking forward to the Commission’s evaluation of the legal consequences of the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and to the related proposals for economic, trade and financial restrictions regarding the peninsula. According to EU diplomats, Crimea is “occupied territory” comparable to the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since June 1967. …

MOSCOW, April 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Kremlin presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov wrote a letter to his namesake who had been denied the right to buy sneakers in an American online shop because of the U.S. sanctions against Russian officials. US imposes sanctions on 20 Russian officials “Dear namesake and fellow citizen! I was surprised to find out that the sanctions imposed by the U.S. administration, including against me, have created certain inconveniencies for you. Your parcel was delayed and the U.S. Post showed that it could place ignorance and corporate zeal above elementary logic. We may face such farce again...

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing Co , the world's biggest airplane maker, on Friday said it had received a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to export certain spare parts for commercial aircraft to Iran under a temporary sanctions relief deal that began in January.

At the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin this weekend highlighted a video of Rand Paul speaking in 2012 about sanctions on Iran. In it, Paul disparages the notion of use of force, and for some reason claims the United States was partly to blame for World War II! “There are times when sanctions have made it worse. I mean, there are times .. leading up to World War II we cut off trade with Japan. That probably caused Japan to react angrily. We also had a blockade on Germany after World War I, which may have encouraged them … some of...

All 25 'no' votes in the House and Senate were from Republicans. House: ---- NAYS 23 ---http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll114.xml Amash Bentivolio Broun (GA) Campbell DesJarlais Duncan (TN) Gohmert Graves (GA) Graves (MO) Griffin (AR) Kingston Massie McAllister Mulvaney Rice (SC) Rohrabacher Rooney Sanford Stockman Weber (TX) Westmoreland Yoho Young (AK) Senate: ---- NAYS 2 --- Heller (NV) Paul (KY)

Apparently, not much interest in sanctions out there... http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2516431/pg1

The West has not yet reached a stage where it will be ready to impose economic sanctions on Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, stressing that she hopes for a political solution to the stalemate over Ukraine crisis. The chancellor said she is “not interested in escalation” of tensions with Russia, speaking after Wednesday meeting with the South Korean president in Berlin. “On the contrary, I am working on de-escalation of the situation,” she added, as cited by Itar-Tass. Merkel believes that the West “has not reached a stage that implies the imposition of economic sanctions” against Russia, advocated by...

The group of five major emerging national economies known as the BRICS has rejected the Western sanctions against Russia and the “hostile language” being directed at the country over the crisis in Ukraine. “The escalation of hostile language, sanctions and counter-sanctions, and force does not contribute to a sustainable and peaceful solution, according to international law, including the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter,” foreign ministers of the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - said in a statement issued on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that Republicans may have helped Russia annex Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in a surprisingly sharp attack ahead of a test vote on a bill authorizing more U.S. sanctions on Russia and $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. […] Reid’s charge comes despite widespread support among Republicans and Democrats in Congress for providing Ukraine with much-needed economic assistance and hitting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government with sanctions. …

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia announced on Monday that it was barring 13 Canadian officials, lawmakers and public figures in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Canada over Russia's annexation of Crimea. The Canadians prohibited from entering Russia include aides to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, members of parliament and the head of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Paul Grod, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "This step was taken in response to unacceptable actions by the Canadian side which have done serious damage to bilateral relations," the ministry said, adding that Canada "chose to ignore the free expression of will of...

resident Obama has ramped up his second round of economic and financial sanctions on Russia, and on Vladimir Putin in particular. Some of this is already working. But if anybody believes it will be easy to financially deflate Russia, they better think again. Russia holds $132 billion of U.S. Treasury securities. That's a big number, and it could be sold in the event of financial warfare. That won't kill the United States. But it will undoubtedly cause interest rates to rise. Would Putin spend it all? Who knows? His central bank just spent $50 billion to defend a sinking ruble,...

Sweeping through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this week, Joe Biden reassured all three that the United States' commitment to Article Five of the NATO treaty remains "solemn" and "iron clad." Article Five commits us to war if the territory of any of these tiny Baltic nations is violated by Russia. From World War II to the end of the Cold War, all three were Soviet republics. All three were on the other side of the Yalta line agreed to by FDR, and on the other side of the NATO red line, the Elbe River in Germany. No president would have...

Today, the US imposed more meaningless sanctions on Russia. Of course Russia responded in kind. In Europe, where far more is to be lost than gained from sanctions, bickering amongst suggests no meaningful escalations in sanctions. Here is a roundup of recent actions, counteractions, threats and counter-threats. Meaningless Additional US Sanctions The Financial Times reports US imposes sanctions on 20 more Russians. The US has announced sanctions on 20 more senior Russian individuals over Moscow’s takeover of Crimea and also singled out a bank which does business with the targeted individuals. Moscow responded by banning nine American officials from entry...

Vladimir Putin has mocked US sanctions imposed on Russia, saying he will open an account at US-sanctioned Rossiya Bank. During a meeting with the country's senior security officials he added that he won’t introduce a visa regime with Ukraine. Putin treated with irony the recent sanctions imposed on certain Russian lawmakers. “Yes, these are those so-called ‘polite people in camouflage with guns’,” ironically said Putin hinting at Western accusations that Russian soldiers have taken bases in Crimea. “Look at them, typical Moskals [pejorative term for Russians – ED.],” he added, pointing at US sanctioned prominent businessmen Arkady and Boris Rotenberg,...

MOSCOW, March 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to open an account in Russian bank Rossiya which came under US sanctions. Putin has made a statement at a meeting of the Russian Security Council after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s report on introduction of US sanctions against Russia. “As far as I understand, this is a middle-size bank,” Putin noted. “I do not have an account there, but I will compulsorily open an account there on Monday,” he pledged. Putin also took with humour imposing of sanctions against concrete Russian citizens, state officials, some of which participated in the...

MOSCOW, March 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian bank Rossiya ('Russia') that came under Western sanctions is not related to events in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Friday. He instructed the Central Bank of Russia to give all necessary aid to this bank. Sanctions against bank Rossiya The US added to the black list another 20 Russian officials on 20 March. In addition, the USA included in the list the only legal entity – bank ‘Russia’ controlled by Yury Kovalchuk, arresting US-based assets of this crediting organization. On Friday, international payment systems Visa and MasterCard suddenly stopped service of cards...

Moscow is studying Washington's list of individuals against whom sanctions were imposed, and already puzzled by some of the names, Russian President's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said. "One can say straight away that we are extremely bewildered by the presence of some names on the list," Peskov said. "So far I cannot say what the reaction is of other people on the US list but Ivanov perceived the news with humor," the president's press secretary said. Ivanov spent 20-odd years serving in the KGB's First Main Directorate and later in the Russian External Intelligence Service, Peskov recalled. "As a result...