US President Obama responds to the Crimean crisis with sanctions. Selected Russians and Ukrainians may not enter the United States. Your accounts are to be frozen.

The U.S. government has repeatedly stressed that they disapproved of Russia to operate in the Ukrainian Crimea. Now U.S. President Barack Obama has imposed sanctions first against those he holds responsible for the crisis.

Washington is a group of Russians and Ukrainians with entry bans in the United States. The visa restrictions are to be directed against a ” number of government officials and persons.” In addition, U.S. assets are to be frozen by ” individuals and institutions.” Names were not mentioned.
Shall be punished those who ” threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” and the ” democratic processes and institutions of the country” undermined , according to a statement from the White House. The U.S. reserved their more steps forward, depending on the location in the Crimea.

On Wednesday talks of EU foreign ministers and their U.S. counterpart John Kerry had failed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The Kremlin did not want to move. Kerry met Thursday again with Lavrov.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that it considered also the European Union sanctions against Russia for inevitable if Moscow is not ready to diplomatic talks. You can not just be business as usual , “if still held no diplomatic talks,” she said. The Chancellor made it clear: “This means that we will also deal with sanctions in a different way. ”

Among the EU countries sanctions against Russia are controversial that could endanger the close economic relations. A stop of the negotiations on visa facilitation and the new basic agreement classed as soft measures of Europeans.

Crimean Crisis:EU freezes assets of Yanukovych

On weekends Russian speaking Uniformed had taken with automatic weapons the most important places of belonging in Ukraine’s Crimea. The gunmen change since the days of the Ukrainian military bases on the peninsula. The new pro-Western leadership of Ukraine and the U.S. accuses Russia claims to have brought thousands of military personnel to the Crimea.

Moscow denies the allegation: Not Russian soldiers, but local vigilantes are on site. Foreign Minister Lavrov insisted that Moscow had on the pro-Russian groups in the Crimea no command authority.

The European Union has still not adopted any punitive measures against Russians. However, the assets of the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the accounts of 17 other Ukrainians in the EU were frozen. The casualty is accused of embezzlement or misappropriation of state funds or human rights violations.

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