Posted on 12/12/2014 8:26:24 PM PST by wetphoenix
Washington (AFP) - American lawmakers defied President Barack Obama and approved fresh economic sanctions against Russia, prompting swift criticism from Moscow Friday over toughening the US response to a Kremlin-backed separatist insurgency in Ukraine.
The legislation also authorizes -- but does not legally require -- Obama to provide lethal and non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons, ammunition and "tactical troop-operated surveillance drones."
The sanctions bill was passed unanimously Thursday in the Senate and House of Representatives. Because of a technical issue it returns to the Senate, where aides say there likely will be unanimous consent for final passage as early as Friday.
Asked whether the president would sign it, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said "we are looking at it right now."
Washington backs Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, but Obama has yet to approve the bulk of an arms request by Kiev.
The bill's coauthor Senator Bob Corker criticized the delay as a "hesitant US response to Russia's continued invasion of Ukraine."
Final passage of the sanctions would heap political pressure on the president.
But on Thursday Obama signalled he was against unilaterally putting the economic squeeze on Moscow, saying it would be "counterproductive" for Washington to "get out ahead of Europe further" on sanctions.
"The notion that we can simply ratchet up sanctions further and further and further, and then ultimately Putin changes his mind, I think is a miscalculation," Obama said.
Washington coordinated with the European Union to impose tough sanctions on Russia in September. While they have bitten into the Russian economy, Putin dismissed the punitive measures and said the West was using Ukraine as an international pawn.
In November, the Pentagon delivered the first of 20 anti-mortar radar systems to Ukraine.
The current legislation authorizes $350 million worth of weapons, defense equipment
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
We have 600 Warthogs we are junking, a bunch of stupid
shit, that we could give them, along with letting our
‘’Tourists” a counterpart to little green huylos
do a little sightseeing and there wouldn’t be a terrorist
tank, gun emplacement, missle launcher, etc, left in a
few days. russia couldn’t haul them in fast enough..
Like videos on other sites showing trainloads of tanks
and APCs coming into Donbass from russia...
All i can say Obama is the most convoluted admin the U.S. has had. But not the most surprising. There are those who have pretended to be conservatives but aren’t, relish him quietly on here. The world isn’t neatly divided into U.S. dems & conservatives or neocons. Time to think individually. That model is outdated. Time is up!
Good. The sooner Ukrainians get the right weapons to defend their country from Putin’s vainglorious adventurism the better. He’s supplied weapons to many nations that are repressing their own people and whose dictators work against peace and security in the world. He’s worked to harm the US as it seeks to stabilize Afghanistan by using his influence to get the base at Manas, Kyrgyzstan closed. He’s in a de facto alliance with Iran’s mad mullahs and has his secret services working with Iran’s. He’s having his subs go into neutral Sweden’s waters, and his planes buzz Norway’s airspace to alarm and frighten people uninvolved in his neo-empire building. He’s reckless, and he is a midget-minded rogue. His KGB background prepared him only to be a bully to the Russian people and to their neighbors. It may be that the Russian people are too wedded to being a bully nation to stand up to him, but the rest of the world must.
The Russians mostly won’t cuz they mostly don’t care; like Americans those who can & willing move on.... Actually you forget Russians are just as numbed & dumbed-down as Americans. It’s just words & make-believe all around. Waste of time. BUT when people finally wake up, they’ll REALLY wake up.. maybe too late for some.
I’m well aware of their apathy; it’s why they drift back into dictatorship and one man leadership so often. They’ve never been able to get away from authoritarianism because they don’t know how or care enough to rule themselves. Beyond that, they easily buy in to the paranoid Russian theory of Russia being surrounded by enemies. Thus, they’re free to attack weak countries that are, in their minds, big threats despite having almost no military of any type. Last, they still like to see themselves as racially and culturally superior despite their self-evident backwardness in social and civic development; they’re chauvinists who enjoy that catnip too much to see that a man like Putin only wants them to follow him so that they can be cannon fodder for his own unnecessary and vainglorious ambitions.
Back at ya! You think just because you got Dems and Republicans, and Libertarians somewhat, you (Americans in general) are out of 'apathy'? I think not.
The core U.S. foreign policy has been the same for decades - you have no solution. Chasing your tail, continuously. Divide and conquer Only when it suits. To make clear it I am not blaming the average American, only saying..
Obi has been a continuation of previous U.S. admins in foreign policy; worse since 2011. AND, Obama Admin has been true to its predecessors; Obama has turned the M.E. and N. Africa Upside Down, installing Muslim Dictatorships - just like James Earl Carter Jnr did in Iran in 1978-79. Do you not see that?
What will be the U.S. administrations' legacy over the decades?! Latter parts of the 20th century & last 35 yrs?
it’s why they drift back into dictatorship and one man leadership so often. They’ve never been able to get away from authoritarianism because they don’t know how or care enough to rule themselves.
Yep, Russians have not been able to and probably won't ever. That's is not their history, nor culture or politics; no comparison in those departments.
But the USA keeps on selling different products - those of freedom, democracy, so on and so forth. Why is it then that we seen only WAR, BEHEADINGS, MURDER, etc... in those lands the USA has claimed to bring democracy to? after decades, only to get worse?
Last, they still like to see themselves as racially and culturally superior despite their self-evident backwardness in social and civic development; they’re chauvinists who enjoy that catnip too much to see that a man like Putin only wants them to follow him so that they can be cannon fodder for his own unnecessary and vainglorious ambitions.
Yep, they (the Russians) do see themselves and racially & culturally superior. They will always see themselves as such. Of course they aren't; only to those who like to string them along, for one reason or another. Putin is a NOBODY. He is simply there for now to counter someone like Obama.
If I personally had to have a choice I'd choose neither someone like Obama nor Putin. But I'd think most would've expected the USA to be the better 'partner' in not causing constant chaos...
Good question - normally wouldn't happen (except for via the UN council) because of the combination of NATO and Russia's obvious aggression designed to develop/increase its hegemony.
On the other hand, Obama doesn't have a record of being involved in conflict in a way that is beneficial to us or our allies - he probably has a well-developed plan to make a lot of folks mad at us while he thumbs his nose.
if they want to hurt russia, just build the pipeline
The world will not turn against us....... the world will turn against Obama
Yet another international banking family war to bring yet another little nation into their financial fold.
These elite families financially squash the sheeple in the elites’ “main” countries of US/UK/Europe, having them in debt up to their eyeballs their entire life, living in McMortgaged McHouses, working for the McCorps in McJobs their entire McLife, until they retire on McSocSec and McMedicare and are “put to sleep” when there are a few to many of them, by letting them McDie with McDignity.
And elites merely want to spread their wonderful tax/debt slavery (don’t worry, you get velvet handcuffs) to other countries.
Silly sheeple, you need more insurance, more regulation, more acceptance of immorality, more of CIAs opium, more of your children being raised by the godless government school system, etc.
To the east, Ukrainians see Russia, (quietly) controlled by Western financial elites since 1917, but it’s sort of trying to talk about Christianity and starting to have a little prosperity, to the west, they see what the financial elites have (a little more visibly) controlled for many centuries, the ungodly, hedonistic governments of the US/UK/Europe, which are stuck under a mountain of debt owed to the elites’ banking syndicate.
Both the Kremlin and the West report to London’s financial elites.
Interesting.
I said EU, not NATO. Aligning with the EU over Russia is what started this conflict. I do not see why we should be paying for any part of it.
Russia invading Ukraine, started this conflict.
Russia needs Ukraine to survive.
What started this conflict was the Russkies invading a foreign country. All the crap about a German or United States conspiracy to create a artificial revolution is false on its face, considering Yanukovych was having people kidnapped and brutalized on top of the violence he was committing right on the street.
And I said NATO because Russia is already talking about the possibility of these "separatist" revolutions starting in NATO countries. IOW, if Russia wins in Ukraine and makes the West back down, they're going to start it again in a "minor" NATO country to test our commitment to the alliance. Russia's long term goal has always been the dissolution of NATO, since nothing else can keep them from sweeping across effeminate Europe which, separate and alone, is useless.
...”Both the Kremlin and the West report to London’s financial elites”....
Yes Indeed.....it all depends on which country is peo-politcally ready ‘to be pushed’....then the corporate “invasions” go full steam after the conflicts settle.
Ukraine wil never see the light of day as extreme austerity measures will rob them left and right to pay for the revenue flowing into their country currently...which then will go back into the hands of the IMF and other banking insititutes to be dispersed to those corporation for further grand thefts of resources.
The only ones operating “freely” are the Corporate Giants.
quote- ‘’dispersed to those corporation for
further grand thefts of resources’’
You mean like the 115 and putler, all russian oligarchs
that own and control 3/4 of russia.And 3/4 of economy.....
OH and the peace that is supposed to be holding, the
terrorists russians shelling Maripol area like crazy and
are send huge numbers of troops and tanks, etc, to
that area, readying all out attack according to NATO.....
Here is video of one convoy........................
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERKJFlGsFU0
Okay. Where’re you from?
Not Russia.
I could also post videos of Ukrainian Troops in the Airport Tower firing during Poroshenko’s days of “peace”....
Photos and videos showing movement of troops means little....mostly because you cannot tell which direction they are going or where they really are. Which is why unless there’s an actual “marker” of some sort I don’t post them.
Oligarchs are throughout all antions Hubel...they come and go...as you know. They may have different tit;es but they all affect, influence and move politicians and governments.
(Ukrainian Army Shoots At The Russian Terrorists Locations From Tower In Donetsk Oblast, Dec 12 2014 Despite Poroshenko’s “Days of Silence” Campaign for Peace.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixCM2Y0joOM#t=89
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