Free Republic

Russia is already more isolated than at any time since the Cold War" - President Obama, August 2014 "China will never support or join recently imposed sanctions against Russia" - China President Xi Jinping, September 2014

BEIJING, September 23. / ITAR-TASS/. China will never support or join recently imposed sanctions against Russia, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, said on Tuesday following her talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The speaker of the Federation Council quoted the Chinese president as saying, that China will never support sanctions against Russia, no matter how much pressure is exerted on them. According to Matviyenko, China publicly stated its opinion on the inadmissibility of unilateral sanctions, their illegitimacy and counter-productivity.

New sanctions on Iran to hurt peace prospects The new sanctions on Iran recently announced include eight individuals, six ships, five banks and 15 other entities. U.S. Treasury officials claim that companies based in Turkey, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates have served as front companies to help Iranian Mahan Air to purchase airplane engines and other parts. Because of their limited scope, the new sanctions will be ineffectual and only damage prospects for peace with that nation. According to the Geneva “interim” agreement reached last November between Iran and the so-called P5-plus-1 group (United States, Britain, France, China, Germany...

Russia's food safety watchdog has suspended operations at four McDonald's restaurants in Moscow over alleged sanitary law breaches.

Euro zone economic growth ground to a halt in the second quarter as Germany's economy shrank and France's stagnated. The zero growth reported by statistics agency Eurostat on Thursday was cause for alarm throughout the 18-nation region, which is already bracing for the impact of sanctions imposed on and by Russia over Ukraine. Germany, Europe's largest economy, contracted by 0.2 percent in the quarter, undercutting Bundesbank forecasts that gross domestic product would be unchanged. Foreign trade and investment were notable weak spots, the German Statistics Office said on Thursday. "Today’s figures show that the upturn remains too weak to withstand...

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi focused on boosting trade and military cooperation on his first presidential visit to Russia, where he was greeted with a display of weapons right upon arrival. Russia has signaled its desire to expand ties with Egypt, an important U.S. ally in the Middle East. When el-Sissi visited Moscow in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin wished him success in the presidential election—though el-Sissi hadn’t yet announced his candidacy. […] Under el-Sissi, Egypt has shown a renewed interest in Russian arms. An array of weapons, including new armored vehicles and missile systems, was displayed at the airport in...

The EU plans to hold talks with countries such as Brazil and Chile to dissuade them from stepping in to replace Europe’s banned agricultural exports to Russia, senior officials said on Monday. Since Russia banned food imports from the EU and the US last week in a response to sanctions, Moscow has been courting Latin America for alternative supplies. Several countries and trade groups in South America have said that Moscow’s measures could offer them a lucrative windfall. Such excitement in the agricultural powerhouses of Latin America has triggered concern in Brussels. “We will be talking to the countries that...

Russian intervention in Ukraine, including for expressed humanitarian purposes is “unacceptable” without Kiev’s authorization, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her US counterpart Barack Obama agreed in a telephone call Saturday. Such a move “violates international law, and will provoke additional consequences,” the White House said in a statement afterwards, referencing the numerous economic sanctions already in place against Moscow. …

Poland has asked the United States to open its market quickly to Polish apples banned by Russia in a sanctions war over the crisis in Ukraine. Poland's ambassador to Washington, Ryszard Schnepf, said he had met Michael Scuse, a senior official in the US Department of Agriculture, about the steps needed to open up the US market, the Polish press agency PAP reported. "We are interested in a quick decision because the situation is extraordinary," Schnepf was quoted as saying. "He told us to begin the procedure. We have a new meeting planned for August 18 with the heads of...

Either Europe is run by a bunch of unelected idiots, or... well, that's about it. After blindly doing the US' bidding over all propaganda matters Ukraine-related, and following just as blindly into round after round of US-inspired sanctions, sanctions to whose retaliation Europe would be on the frontline unlike the largely insulated US, Europe appears to be absolutely shocked and is apoplectic that after several rounds of sanction escalations, Russia finally unleashed its own round of sanctions and yesterday announced a 1 year ban on all European food imports, something which will further push Europe into a triple-dip recession as...

Putin's Secret Message to ObamaI’m Andrew Klavan and this is the Revolting Truth. Ever since President Obama took office, he’s been making friendly overtures to the Russians, trying to “press the reset button” in relations between our two countries. In 2012, the president was even caught on an open mike promising he’d have more “flexibility” to cave in to Russian demands after he was re-elected. Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded warmly to Obama’s gestures by warmly cheating on our arms treaties, warmly supporting our enemies in Syria, warmly annexing Crimea, and warmly abetting the destruction of a Malaysian airliner...

Russia has banned fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports from the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway. Dmitry Medvedev said the ban was effective immediately and would last for one year. The agriculture minister, Nikolai Fyodorov, said on Thursday that greater quantities of Brazilian meat and New Zealand cheese would be imported to offset the newly prohibited items. He added Moscow was in talks with Belarus and Kazakhstan to prevent the banned western foodstuffs being exported to Russia from the two countries. The Kremlin's move comes in response to the grounding of the budget airline subsidiary...

Finland could face an economic crisis because of European Union sanctions against Russia and Helsinki will seek financial compensation from the EU if it is disproportionately hit by the measures, its prime minister said on Wednesday (6 August). Last week, the EU imposed tough sanctions targeting Russia's banking, oil and defence sectors over Moscow's stance in the Ukraine crisis. The West accuses Moscow of actively backing pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine and blames them for downing a Malaysian airliner last month. Russia denies the charges. Russia is Finland's third largest export market, accounting for about 10% of total Finnish sales...

The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has threatened to retaliate for the grounding of a subsidiary of Aeroflot, the national airline, because of EU sanctions, with one newspaper reporting that European flights to Asia over Siberia could be banned. Such a move would enforce costly detours on airlines, including Lufthansa and IAG, owner of British Airways, as more fuel would be needed for extended routes. Low-cost carrier Dobrolyot, operated by Aeroflot, suspended all flights last week after its airline leasing agreement was cancelled under European Union sanctions because it flies to Crimea, a region Russia annexed from Ukraine in March....

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged his government to come up with countermeasures to Western sanctions imposed against Russia over the Ukrainian conflict. Putin stressed that Moscow’s response should be “cautious.” “Obviously we need to do it cautiously in order to support domestic manufacturers, but not hurt consumers,” he said on Tuesday. The president expects the government to present a response to the sanctions as soon as possible. Putin said that the political tools of pressure being used against the Russian economy are unacceptable, stressing that they go against international rules and norms. Putin’s comments come on the same day...

President Obama announced last week that he was imposing yet another round of sanctions on Russia, this time targeting financial, arms, and energy sectors. The European Union, as it has done each time, quickly followed suit. These sanctions will not produce the results Washington demands, but they will hurt the economies of the US and EU, as well as Russia. These sanctions are, according to the Obama administration, punishment for what it claims is Russia's role in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and for what the president claims is Russia's continued arming of separatists in eastern Ukraine. Neither...

Various meetings have taken place between Polish and EU officials in the wake of what many believe is a politically motivated ban by Russia prohibiting the country’s produce. Poland’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Marek Sawicki met with exporters earlier yesterday following Russia’s ban on various Polish products including apples, cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines and cabbage, that took effect on August 1, 2014. Another meeting also took place last week between the agricultural minister, European Commission Director General for Agriculture, Jerzy Bogdan Plewa, and chairman of the Committee of Agricultural and Rural Development of the European Parliament, Czeslaw...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's consumer protection watchdog is preparing to suspend imports of "Kentucky Gentleman" bourbon, adding to a growing list of products Russia has banned since the West imposed new sanctions over Moscow's support of rebels in Ukraine. The Rospotrebnadzor service found signs of phthalates - organic chemicals - in the bourbon, it said on Monday in a statement on its website. www.rospotrebnadzor.ru

Seriously. Things are beginning to look kinda pathetic for the Kerry/ Obama foreign policy doctrine. Just this week Russia violated an arms treaty by testing a new type of cruise missile; and Obama’s response was to send a letter to Vladimir Putin (not joking) explaining his disapproval. Future ramifications might include a new hashtag campaign, unfriending Putin on Facebook, or sending angry text messages late at night. And, really, given the West’s reaction to Putin’s acts of aggression in Ukraine, it only makes sense that the former KGB agent would feel emboldened to disrespect an obscure Reagan era treaty. Vladimir...

MOSCOW — Russia, facing the toughest round of Western sanctions imposed since the Ukraine crisis erupted, has adopted a nonchalant public stance, with President Vladimir V. Putin emphasizing the importance of self-reliance and a new poll released Tuesday indicating a “What, me worry?” attitude among the bulk of the population. But beneath that calm facade, there is growing alarm in Russia that the festering turmoil in Ukraine and the new round of far more punitive sanctions — announced Tuesday by both European nations and the United States — will have an impact on Russia’s relations with the West for years...