Speaking to reporters in Washington, Joe Biden said he would consider personal sanctions against Vladimir Putin if Russia invaded Ukraine, citing 'severe consequences'. The threat of sanctions came as the US helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut
Continue reading...Category Archives: Vladimir Putin
US finalizing plans to divert gas to Europe if Russia cuts off supply
Officials working with global suppliers to avoid European gas crisis if flow from Russia is cut as Biden says he would consider personal sanctions against Putin
The US has helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut, in an effort to blunt Vladimir Putin’s most powerful economic weapon.
As fears of an invasion of Ukraine have grown, US officials said on Tuesday that they had been negotiating with global suppliers, and they were now confident that Europe would not suffer from a sudden loss of energy for heating in the middle of winter.
Continue reading...Rising costs of Ukraine gamble could force Russia’s hand
Analysis: Putin can still turn back but it looks less likely as economic and political consequences mount
Russia’s aggressive buildup near Ukraine energised Nato into sending more forces to eastern Europe on Monday and led to a plunge on Russian markets, raising the stakes on the Kremlin’s bet that it could cajole, extort or force Ukraine into submission.
For Moscow it has become more difficult to pull back from its aggressive stance after US and Nato announcements that more troops would be deployed to the military alliance’s eastern flank. A unilateral drawdown now would leave the Kremlin a clear loser in the standoff, having provoked a strengthening of the very Nato presence that it had sought to banish from eastern Europe.
Continue reading...German navy chief resigns over comments on Putin and Ukraine – video
The chief of Germany’s navy has resigned after arguing during a livestreamed event that Vladimir Putin 'deserves respect' and Kyiv will not win back annexed Crimea. Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin said Kay-Achim Schönbach's comments 'massively' called into question Germany’s trustworthiness
- German navy chief quits after saying Putin deserves respect over Ukraine
- EU official vows rapid sanctions if Russia launches Ukraine military attack
Confusion over UK claim that Putin plans coup in Ukraine
Foreign Office claim of plot to install pro-Moscow government in Kyiv comes with scant detail
The Foreign Office has said that it had exposed evidence of a plot to install a pro-Moscow government in Ukraine, and Boris Johnson promised to “ramp up pressure on Russia”, as his own domestic political troubles deepened.
Saturday’s rare reference to intelligence-gathering went into almost no detail about a conspiracy that, if accurate, could mean a serious escalation in the threat to Ukraine. Politicians there were sceptical that the government could be replaced without a full-blown invasion of the capital, Kyiv.
Continue reading...Ukraine: Blinken says talks with Russia’s Lavrov were ‘frank and substantive’ – video
The US secretary of state described talks in Geneva with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, intended to reduce tensions that have risen since Russia massed troops near Ukraine's border, as ‘frank and substantive’. But Antony Blinken repeated the US and Nato’s position that there could still be no compromise on the central issue of the right of Ukraine and other countries to join Nato in the future
Continue reading...Biden warns Russia will ‘pay a heavy price’ if Putin launches Ukraine invasion – as it happened
- President clarifies comments from Wednesday on Ukraine-Russia
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticizes Biden’s ‘minor incursions’ remark
- Mitch McConnell condemned for comments about Black voters
- Democrats fail to advance voting rights bill in Senate
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Here’s where the day stands so far:
Continue reading...Fear and defiance on Ukraine’s frontline: ‘We don’t like dictators here’
With ageing Soviet-era rockets and a depleted, elderly fleet, Ukraine’s military hold their breath for Moscow’s next move
Yiry Ulshin surveyed a scene of ruin. Before him were the remains of what was once a school. Desks were covered in debris. A photo of the class of 2011 lay in the wreckage. There were abandoned crayons and year 3 books in Ukrainian and Russian. Beyond a bullet-scarred wall was a view of pine trees and sea.
“My heart is hurting. Why did Russia do this?” Ulshin, a Ukrainian army commander, asked.
Continue reading...Low key and loyal: the domestic response to Russian troop buildup
Analysis: After eight years of conflict with the west, many Russians appear resigned to whatever course Putin chooses
Russia’s buildup of a potential invasion force on Ukraine’s borders has produced little reaction at home despite western threats of devastating economic consequences that would harm tycoons, top businesspeople and the general public alike.
Since 2014, recurrent rounds of sanctions over the annexation of Crimea, the shooting down of the MH17 jetliner, the 2016 US elections interference, the Salisbury poisonings, the attempted assassination of Alexei Navalny and other international scandals have steeled Vladimir Putin’s elite supporters and prepared them for the worst.
Continue reading...What have Ukraine talks achieved, and is war now more likely?
Russia calls talks a ‘dead end’ and it becomes clear that troop build-up is not a bluff to achieve other ends
The Guardian’s world affairs editor assesses the outcome of three rounds of talks this week about the fate of Ukraine, involving Russia, the US, Nato and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Did the talks achieve anything?
Continue reading...Russia’s belief in Nato ‘betrayal’ – and why it matters today
The idea that the Soviet Union was tricked in 1989-90 is at the heart of Russia’s confrontation with the west
The current confrontation between Russia and the west is fuelled by many grievances, but the greatest is the belief in Moscow that the west tricked the former Soviet Union by breaking promises made at the end of the cold war in 1989-1990 that Nato would not expand to the east. In his now famous 2007 speech to the Munich Security Conference, Vladimir Putin accused the west of forgetting and breaking assurances, leaving international law in ruins.
Continue reading...US-Russia talks over Ukraine ‘useful’ but no progress made
Diplomats stress they have not made progress towards resolving fundamental disagreements
US and Russian diplomats have emerged from a day of negotiations in Geneva over the fate of Ukraine, describing the talks as “useful” and “very professional” – but also stressing they had not made progress towards resolving fundamental disagreements.
The two sides largely spent the eight hours of talks presenting their points of view on the situation in Ukraine, currently hemmed in by some 100,000 Russian troops, and on European security in general, and deferred further debate on them to a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday between Russia and all Nato members.
Continue reading...Desmond Tutu’s funeral and Kazakhstan clashes: human rights this fortnight – in pictures
A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Hong Kong
Continue reading...Nato chief warns of real risk of Ukraine conflict as Russian buildup continues
Jens Stoltenberg says Nato will never withdraw its conditional offer of membership to Ukraine
The risk of conflict is real as Russia continues to mass its forces and artillery on the borders of Ukraine and make demands that it knows are unacceptable, Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has warned.
Earlier, Nato foreign ministers held a final symbolic display of transatlantic unity before a set of three separate critical talks next week with Russia on Moscow’s demands to restore past spheres of influence and have Nato strategic weapons withdrawn from near Russia’s borders.
Continue reading...Putin taking a risk in Kazakhstan and may hope for reward
Analysis: CSTO may be an alliance but decision to intervene was almost certainly taken in Moscow
The old joke about the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact was that it was the only military alliance to attack itself, after its tanks rolled into Prague in 1968 to crush a reform movement there.
With the deployment of troops from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) to Kazakhstan on Thursday, some heard “eerie echoes” of the so-called Prague spring of 1968, and the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian revolution in 1956.
Continue reading...Liz Truss says Russia faces high-level sanctions if it invades Ukraine
Foreign secretary asserts western solidarity against Putin’s threats, but MPs challenge her on Russian influence in UK
Massive coordinated sanctions threatened against Russia if it launches military action against Ukraine will hit the high-level Russian elite and its ability to carry out financial transactions, Liz Truss, the UK foreign secretary, told MPs on Thursday, as she warned the west could not afford to be seen to reward Moscow in crucial talks next week.
Her remarks appear indirectly to confirm that if Russia mounts an incursion into Ukraine it could be excluded from Swift, the messaging network used by 11,000 banks in 200 countries to make cross-border payments.
Continue reading...Top EU diplomat offers full support to Ukraine on visit to conflict frontline
Josep Borrell warns ‘severe costs’ would follow any aggression against Kyiv by Russian-backed separatists
The European Union’s top diplomat has pledged “full support” to Ukraine on a visit to the frontline of the country’s war with Moscow-backed separatists.
Josep Borrell is the first EU high representative for foreign policy to have visited the Donbass region since war broke out nearly eight years ago.
Continue reading...Russia ‘very likely’ to invade Ukraine without ‘enormous sanctions’ – Schiff
- House intelligence chair: invasion might draw Nato closer
- Sanctions must be ‘at level Russia has never seen’ to deter Putin
Russia is “very likely” to invade Ukraine and might only be deterred by “enormous sanctions”, the chair of the US House intelligence committee said on Sunday.
Adam Schiff also said an invasion could backfire on Moscow, by drawing more countries into the Nato military alliance.
Continue reading...Biden to speak with Putin amid Russia’s increased presence near Ukraine
Two leaders will discuss a range of topics, including ‘upcoming diplomatic engagements in Russia’
Joe Biden will speak on Thursday with Vladimir Putin regarding the Russian president increased security demands in eastern Europe.
The two leaders will discuss a range of topics, including “upcoming diplomatic engagements in Russia”, said US national security council spokesperson Emily Horne in a statement announcing the call.
Continue reading...Rights group’s closure is part of rapid dismantling of Russian civil society
Analysis: brief window when Russia would tolerate independent reckoning of its past appears to have closed
In a terrible year for human rights in Russia, beginning with the imprisonment of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the closure of International Memorial stands out for its ruthlessness.
Founded in the late 1980s by Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet-era dissidents, the group took the new freedoms offered under Mikhail Gorbachev and used them to reveal raw truths about the fate of millions of victims of Stalin’s repressions.
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