The EU and US have been talking tough and producing lists of high-profile Russians they have identified for asset freezes
The international community does not like it, but Ukraine has lost Crimea to Russia. The question now is how to persuade President Vladimir Putin against taking another pound of Ukrainian flesh or, more likely, attempting to render the country ungovernable. To this end, the EU and US have been talking tough and producing lists of high-profile Russians they have identified for asset freezes and travel bans. The EU yesterday announced it was adding 12 people to the list of 21 officials it will punish. On Thursday, the US came out with its own second tranche of individuals to target.
Neither the rhetoric nor the sanctions have looked convincing, but the US Treasury's list is at least a fascinating account of where Washington believes the bodies are buried in the Putin administration. Among the four men and one bank listed under the heading "members of the inner circle" is the close Putin ally Gennady Timchenko. Mr Timchenko was until recently co-owner of Gunvor, which rose from nothing to become the fourth largest oil trader in the world on the back of contracts awarded by the state. According to the US Treasury, Mr Putin has investments in Gunvor and "may have access to Gunvor funds". (The Kremlin denies this). The US list also fingers Arkady Rotenberg, a former judo partner of Mr Putin whose companies won more than $7bn worth of contracts for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Bank Rossiya, meanwhile, sometimes described as "Putin's bank", owns major stakes in many of the Russian media companies that have been cheerleading the Crimean conquest.
The targeting of these asset freezes is smart, but they do not represent much of a stick. In Kiev, the sanctions have been derided as a "mosquito bite", and Mr Putin himself yesterday laughed them off. Any crony worth his salt will have long made plans to keep their money out of western clutches, as Mr Timchenko did by dumping his Gunvor stake on Wednesday.
Europe has threatened a possible third, more intrusive round of economic sanctions, but we can read in their sluggish responses the double bind the 28 EU states are in, loth to cut off their stuttering economies from Russian trade and gas and unable to set a clear foreign policy objective. Wider economic sanctions are also a blunt, unpredictable instrument: they take years to work, hurt the innocent as much as the guilty, and can even align the people behind a nationalist leader.
More effective perhaps than any of these measures would be the suggestion floated by Andy Burnham: a threat to pull the 2018 World Cup from Russia. Withdrawing the propaganda opportunities of such a large event might – just might – make Mr Putin think twice. Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.
The international community does not like it, but Ukraine has lost Crimea to Russia. The question now is how to persuade President Vladimir Putin against taking another pound of Ukrainian flesh or, more likely, attempting to render the country ungovernable. To this end, the EU and US have been talking tough and producing lists of high-profile Russians they have identified for asset freezes and travel bans. The EU yesterday announced it was adding 12 people to the list of 21 officials it will punish. On Thursday, the US came out with its own second tranche of individuals to target.
Neither the rhetoric nor the sanctions have looked convincing, but the US Treasury's list is at least a fascinating account of where Washington believes the bodies are buried in the Putin administration. Among the four men and one bank listed under the heading "members of the inner circle" is the close Putin ally Gennady Timchenko. Mr Timchenko was until recently co-owner of Gunvor, which rose from nothing to become the fourth largest oil trader in the world on the back of contracts awarded by the state. According to the US Treasury, Mr Putin has investments in Gunvor and "may have access to Gunvor funds". (The Kremlin denies this). The US list also fingers Arkady Rotenberg, a former judo partner of Mr Putin whose companies won more than $7bn worth of contracts for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Bank Rossiya, meanwhile, sometimes described as "Putin's bank", owns major stakes in many of the Russian media companies that have been cheerleading the Crimean conquest.
The targeting of these asset freezes is smart, but they do not represent much of a stick. In Kiev, the sanctions have been derided as a "mosquito bite", and Mr Putin himself yesterday laughed them off. Any crony worth his salt will have long made plans to keep their money out of western clutches, as Mr Timchenko did by dumping his Gunvor stake on Wednesday.
Europe has threatened a possible third, more intrusive round of economic sanctions, but we can read in their sluggish responses the double bind the 28 EU states are in, loth to cut off their stuttering economies from Russian trade and gas and unable to set a clear foreign policy objective. Wider economic sanctions are also a blunt, unpredictable instrument: they take years to work, hurt the innocent as much as the guilty, and can even align the people behind a nationalist leader.
More effective perhaps than any of these measures would be the suggestion floated by Andy Burnham: a threat to pull the 2018 World Cup from Russia. Withdrawing the propaganda opportunities of such a large event might – just might – make Mr Putin think twice. Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.