Russian Security Council Holds Urgent Meeting on Ukraine

Interfax
March 6, 2014

Putin hosts Russian Security Council session addressing Ukraine situation

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted a Russian Security Council conference addressing the situation in Ukraine, taking into account the Crimean Supreme Council’s Thursday decision on preparing Crimea’s accession to Russia, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.

Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Federation Council Chair Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin, presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Mikhail Fradkov, and Security Council permanent member Boris Gryzlov.

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Itar-Tass
March 6, 2014

Lavrov: US intentions to impose sanctions against Russia are already a threat

ROME: US intentions to impose sanctions against Russia are already a threat, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the Italian capital on Thursday.

“I drew attention of the US State Secretary as I did so yesterday in Paris that non-stop fuelling of atmosphere continues, some restrictive lists against Russian citizens to be banned to enter the United States were announced,” the minister said. “Kerry assured us that there are no lists yet, there is an instruction, but this does not change the situation. There are also threats to freeze activity in the Group of Eight and the Russia-NATO Council,” Lavrov said.

“These structures are needed for us no more than for our partners and no more than for the world community which is quite interested in normal dialogue between Russia and the West, without any attempts of ultimatums and attempts of unilateral demands to change our position,” Lavrov noted.

“Our president has laid out absolutely clearly our position in this case with Ukraine. This position enjoys broad understanding in the world. Unfortunately, information background is filled with unilateral semi-hysterical assessments,” the Russian foreign minister noted.

“I said this once again to Kerry and he understands this that this hardly helps normal work under the threat of ultimatums and sanctions,” Lavrov added.

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Russian Information Agency Novosti
March 6, 2014

US Authorizes Sanctions Against Officials ‘Destabilizing’ Ukraine

MOSCOW: The White House said Thursday that it was imposing visa bans and authorizing other sanctions against officials “who are most directly involved in destabilizing Ukraine.”

The statement did not directly identify the officials to be affected.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his US counterpart John Kerry denied the existence of such blacklists when they met in Rome on Thursday. It was their third meeting in two days.

“He [Kerry] assured me that there were no such blacklists, there were only orders, but that doesn’t change anything. It’s still a threat, just like decisions to freeze the activities of the G8 and the Russia-NATO Council,” Lavrov said.

He said such moves only stir up tensions and complicate future diplomatic efforts.

The move came hours after an announcement by the Crimean parliament that it intended to secede and request annexation by Russia. A popular vote on the issue is to be held in the region on March 16.

The potential sanctions, authorized by an executive order signed by US President Barack Obama, would apply to individuals as well as legal entities, and threaten to further deteriorate the already strained relations between Russia and the US following the occupation of Ukraine’s largely Russian-speaking Crimea peninsula by troops apparently under Russian control over the weekend.

An adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that Russian authorities would consider dumping more than $200 billion of US government bonds in response to possible US sanctions against Russian companies and individuals.

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The US visa bans are the latest in a series of moves by the West to obstruct Russian deployment in Crimea, including suspending bilateral trade meetings, joint military exercises and preparations for a summit of the leaders of the G8 group of powerful democracies that was scheduled for June in the Russian city of Sochi.

The US Defense Department’s newspaper, “Stars & Stripes,” reported Thursday that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Truxtun was en route to the Black Sea for previously scheduled exercises with Romania and Bulgaria.