We are sure President Obama must be happy that the European leaders finally stepped in line behind him and layered new goldilocks sanctions on Russia [5]. With business leaders on both sides of the Atlantic urging him not to, for fear of the dreaded 'boomerang' from Putin (which has already been targeted at MSFT, IBM [6], MCD [7], INTC, AMD, and car manufacturers [8]), President Obama is set to explain how his new-new sanctions (which include several Russian banks including VTB, Russia's second largest ) and will be the message that Putin needs to leave, fold to NATO, handover everything, and retire to the Gulag. Yet, oddly enough, Gazprom is once again missing from the sanctions list. The whole market is sliding heading into his speech (including the Russian ETF). We await the retaliation. [9]
Treasury announces new sanctions... [10]
- *LEW SAYS VERY IMPORTANT EUROPE IS TAKING ACTION ON SANCTIONS
- *LEW: SANCTIONS SEND RUSSIA MESSAGE THAT BEHAVIOR `UNACCEPTABLE'
- *LEW: WITH SANCTIONS RUSSIA WILL HAVE FLAT OR NEGATIVE GROWTH
- *U.S. SANCTIONS VTB BANK, BANK OF MOSCOW
- *U.S. SANCTIONS RUSSIAN AGRICULTURAL BANK
- *U.S. SANCTIONS UNITED SHIPBUILDING CORPORATION (UKRAINE)
VTB Bank is Russia's largest bank
The sanctions list includes 4 Chinese nationals and 16 Iranian shipping companies.
But don't worry:
- *LEW: SANCTIONS WILL HAVE MINIMAL IMPACT ON U.S. ECONOMY
[11]
Live Feed (Obama due to speak at 1510ET)
We can't help but sense the Europeans are back-peddling a little...
- *EU RUSSIA SANCTIONS DON'T COVER SYNDICATED LOANS, OFFICIAL SAYS
- *EU SANCTIONS COVER LIMITED NO. OF RUSSIAN BANKS, OFFICIAL SAYS
Then there's this...
- *NEW EU SANCTIONS TO LAST FOR INITIAL PERIOD OF 12 MONTHS
Quickly followed by this...
- *EU TO ASSESS IMPACT ON EU ECONOMY IN SANCTIONS REVIEW: OFFICIAL
- *EU TO WEIGH RUSSIA'S BEHAVIOR IN REVIEWING SANCTIONS: OFFICIAL
So if Putin goes crazy with retaliation, we'll fold?
