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Putin Strikes Back: Russia's Sanctions List Said To Include US Senators, High Ranking Administration Officials
Ever since the theatrical announcement of asset freezes and other related sanctions of various Putin aides, Russian military and pro-Russia Ukrainian leaders earlier today by both the US president and the EU, the nagging question was when and how would Vladimir Vladimirovich retaliate, with tomorrow's Putin address to the joint session of Parliament seeming as a probable time and place. It now appears that Putin's personal retaliation has been leaked in advance, and according to the Daily Beast's Josh Rogin, it will involve an in kind response where various US senators and highly placed officials will be banned from visiting Russia, and likely also see their particular assets - if any- in Russian custody promptly frozen.
From the Beast:
U.S. senators, congressmen and top Obama administration officials are sure to be on Vladimir Putin’s sanctions list; a response to the Obama Administration’s announcement on Monday that 7 Russian officials and 4 Ukrainian officials would be barred from holding assets or traveling to the United States.
Putin is expected to release his retaliation list as early as Tuesday and while the final list is still being crafted, it will include top Obama administration officials and high profile U.S. senators, in an effort to roughly mirror the U.S. sanctions against Russian officials and lawmakers, according to diplomatic sources. At the top of the list in Congress is Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who recently co-authored a resolution criticizing Russia’s invasion of Crimea.
Durbin’s inclusion on Putin’s list would mirror Obama’s naming of Valentina Matvienko, the head of the upper chamber of the Russian Duma. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are not expected to be on the Russian sanctions list.
Another person who will most certainly appears on the list is perpetual war hawk, and the person who responded to Putin's own Syrian near-war Op-Ed, John McCain.
"You think I’m not going to be on it?” McCain said. “I would be honored to be on that list.” McCain said he would not be impacted financially by being subject to a visa ban and asset freeze in the Russian Federation. "I guess I’m going to have to try to withdraw my money from my secret account in St. Petersburg,” he joked.
His sentiment mirrors that of Putin aide Surkov who earlier claimed to "being proud to be on U.S. black list" according to Interfax. Paradoxically, it is rapidly becoming a badge of honor to be named on the opposing nation's sanctions list, which instead of hurting those politicians - and as McCain said he hardly has a St. Petersburg account - it will raise their status in the eyes of the general public.
Of course, if and when the sanctions expand to include various oligarchs and/or mega corporations on either side of the border, the fallout would be far more dramatic should Russian billionaire owners of New York City penthouses or Los Angeles mansions be forced to liquidate their holdings, or if E&P companies in Russia suddenly find their assets partially nationalized. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.
Who else.
Other names that could be on the Russian sanctions list, although not confirmed, include Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Bob Corker (R-TN), the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who are leading the sanctions drive in the Senate, and Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, who has been heavily involved in working with the Ukrainian opposition that ousted the Yanokovich government.
Where it gets far more surreal is that the Beast reports that "one U.S. official who can rest easy is White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who will not be on Putin’s sanctions list. It's been an ongoing rumor in administration circles that Carney is quietly lobbying to replace former Ambassador Mike McFaul as the next U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, who will also not be on the list." Well if the US really wants to accelerate WWIII, it would indeed be best served by sending Carney to Bolshoy Deviatinsky Pereulok No. 8.
To be sure, the initial round of escalations achieves nothing besides merely antagonizing the two sides further. In this case the Beast is correct when it says that "the tit for tat sanctions are not likely to convince either side to back down from their position over the Russian invasion of Crimea, McCain said.“If we acquiesced to that, that would be a green light for him to go for Moldova, where there are also Russian troops,” said McCain. “That’s the problem with this appeasement policy.”
So what could next steps look like?
McCain is advocating for a series of more serious steps, which include the immediate arming of the Ukrainian military, which the administration has rejected for now, promising to help the Ukrainian military develop over the long term, rethinking U.S. approaches to Putin, and restarting U.S. missile defense projects in Eastern Europe.
There are signs that Putin is preparing a scenario ahead of a possible invasion of Eastern Ukraine, including sending Russian intelligence agents inside Ukraine to stir up unrest as a pretext for a possible expansion of the invasion.
“I’m not sure about Eastern Ukraine, but Putin has put everything in place for a de facto partition of Eastern Ukraine,” he said. “Will he do it? I don’t know. But I don’t think he can be discouraged from that by these limited actions by the United States… We must commit to the ultimate return of Crimea to Ukraine, just as we promised to the so called captive that they would eventually be free of Soviet domination.”
Short of the nuclear option, literally, which would be to plant more anti-ballistic missiles in NATO countries bordering the former USSR states, there is one almost as serious alternative:
“Our actions today demonstrate our firm commitment to holding those responsible accountable for undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a statement. “We are thoroughly prepared to take increasing and responsive steps that would impose further political and economic costs. At the same time, we want to be clear that a path of de-escalation remains available to the Russians, should they choose to use it."
And just as likely is Russia willing to take steps which would result in the complete liquidation of its $130 or so billion in US Treasurys and announcing it would transact in all currencies but the dollar going forward. Up to and including gold of course.
One thing is certain: while the Crimea referendum's outcome was priced in well in advance, we are now in completely uncharted waters, and the only question is which side will push the other just that extra inch too far, forcing disproportionate retaliation. Because if one thing has been made clear by now, it is that a crash in foreigner-owned Russian stocks, and not to mention the S&P, will hurt Obama far more than his Russian opponent.
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Better wake up and act quick cos privitization is going forward fast.
However, any contract entered by illegit govt. should be overturned..
That won't bring the gold back, if actually missing.
Or any other physical tassets they can haul away.
Vlad is just halving fun now.
"anything you can do..."
Paging John Kerry/Kohn/Cohen.... Paging John Kerry/Kohn/Cohen...
Your Mission - should you choose to accept it - is to pilot your Swift Boat over he nearest 2,000ft waterfall..... without a life-jacket.
I think these posts are too harsh on McCain. He was in a nva pow pit full of shit for 2 years after which his own people most likely Manchurian candidated him. Its really not fair to blame him because he does not qualify as human, just an empty shitbag the zios defacate in.
LOL, McCain's father saw that he was provided with an
apartment in Hanoi and the services of two prostitutes.
Upon returning to his prison cell, he would say he
had been held in solitary confinement. That may
be why so many of his fellow prisoners said later
they saw so little of him at Hoa Loa.
http://liberalscumbuster.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/mccain-got-prostitutes...
McCain has become a political prostitute.
They broke him. He is continuing the cycle of abuse. It takes a lot of good support to break out of that and he is being supported to stay in it.
Wait!!! There is a show called Blacklist!? I thought it was a joke at first... http://twitter.com/NBCBlacklist/status/445696106886725635/photo/1
James Spader. Good show. Been watching it since it came out. Spoiler: most recent episode finally exposed the under-cover operative who's been right beside the main character, Elizabeth Keene, all along, who may or may not be the daughter of Raymond Reddington (Spader) and no one knows.
They're keeping it wide open on that one but hinting strongly.
Helix is a good one too. Continuum Season 3 just aired 1st ep.
nice propaganda prank to counter russian tweets
Forbes.ru is reporting that Russia's richest man, Alisher Usmanov, has sold his shares of Apple and Facebook and invested in Chinese technology companies.
He probably knows exactly what's going on in Apple's Foxconn plants.
Now that is huge news and a milestone that will make people take notice and it's not just about the economic war taking place between the U.S. and Russia either.
I've said for many years now that their would come a time when Indians, Chinese and Eastern Europeans would ditch their "cribs" in the U.S. to go back home when their was no longer an incentive for them to stay in the U.S., once the manufacturing was already in their home Country. Once the U.S. population was no longer being used around that technology because the manufacturing base has moved abroad, the education and jobs would simply caravan behind it...
This is what has been happening in the U.S. for the past decade as the shift from commercial production overeseas makes tax revenue much more insidious for ever increasing federal budgets with the brain drain of technical skills having to be obtained from abroad because, the worker and the community that grows it with education and job security has continued to vanish here because of the American Coproate choices.
Thx Jorgen
Did anybody catch what Lavrov did over the weekend to Kerry?
I think what Putin is doing with his "list" may be part of that same strategy...
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer and at the same time let everbody else know who's to blame for being the source of the problem i nquestion!
basically they agreed on federalizing Ukrain where Ukrain will become a Federation of independent republics.
I guess later on eastern republics will declare independence and join Russia while western ones will join EU
This is very similar to Germany and Russia dividing Poland right before going into WW2
Do not get disillusioned - WW3
still in the making but it may take several years to develope (my bet it is planned for Russian presidential elections)
Is Michele really telling this stupid fuck of a prezident what to say? WTF?
This is turning out to be great theater.
Off topic. Another China default.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-17/chinese-developer-with-3-5-bill...
"...the nagging question was when and how would Vladimir Vladimirovich retaliate..."
Let's see how this thing could escalate. They could cut off oil and gas, that Europe and the world market needs. So what can we cut them off from? Okay, so how about Miley Cyrus? That'll learn 'em.
Pssssst, Barry: he's winning
Return Crimea to Ukraine? LOL, they meant return to the EU.
Seems the neo-cons are back in power. This dick-measuring contest is liable to turn into a mushroom cloud or several.
They never left.
Russian Response - McCain wont be able to visit Crimea
The history of the world is rife with horror. The Holodomor was so bad it is inconceivable at this point but just think of the states of Ga, Al, starving to death...and watching it happen.I suspect that this could happen again. Understanding the situation of the Holodomor makes more sense now. The Ukraineians would be against Russia coming in....the Treaty of Budapest was signed in 1991. Russia signed it. The problem is that the US does not have a leg to stand on....as far as condemning this action. Listening to Kerry and Obama calling this move illegal is absurd.....the US has been rogue with Iraq, Iran, Afgan, Syria, Egypt, Venezuela etc etc...how can we even say anything without looking like total lieing fools.
good luck phony faggot with the sealed records, this kgb col. is your going to make your anus raggity
The MSM is spoon feeding the stupid sheeple of the US the line that Russia invaded Crimea. The sheeple still follow Obama because he writes their checks, gives them a phone and lets them live her illegally. The simple fact is this is a US/CIA instigated crisis and a massive miscalculation that they could roll Putin. Putin is not the typical arab pussy they are used to rolling. I'm sure Putin is no prize but if he can buttfuck Obama and the neocons, more power to him
Three years ago, France signed a military contract worth $1.7 billion to build two advanced-technology Mistral-class helicopter carriers for Russia, with an option to build two more. The first carrier, Vladivostok, conducted its sea trials earlier this month and is set to arrive in Moscow later this year. A Russian crew is already being trained on the ship, currently berthed in the French port of Saint-Nazaire. A sister ship, Sebastopol — ironically named after the chief port of Crimea — is set for delivery to the Russian navy late in 2015.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373471/appeasement-paris-john-fund
Soyuz launches to ISS March 25.
I'm sure yankee doodle will go.
Or stay home?
That should give us a clue how the world will turn.
Stack On
I can't help but secretly hope that putin pulls a Mike Tyson or Face Eater Monkey when I see that pic. Quick, get this guy some bath salts!
It's all okay. Fear Not. Genious Obama to the Rescue!!!