Category: Foreign Policy

The Treasury Department announced that they’ve sanctioned 16 more Russian officials who aren’t Vlad Putin to punish Putin for annexing the Crimea.

Viktor Ozerov is the Chairman of the Security and Defense Committee of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. On March 1, 2014, Ozerov supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s appeal regarding the use of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine.

Vladimir Dzhabarov is the First Deputy Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. On March 1, 2014, Dzhabarov supported the Putin’s appeal regarding the use of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine.

Evgeni Bushmin is the Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. On March 1, 2014, Bushmin publicly supported the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine.

Nikolai Ryzhkov is a Senator in the Russian Upper House of Parliament (Federation Council). Ryzhkov publicly supported the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine.

Sergei Zheleznyak is the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Sergei Mironov is a Member of the Council of the State Duma, a Member of the State Duma Committee on Housing Policy and Housing and Communal Services, and Leader of the Fair Russia Faction in the Duma of the Russian Federation.

Aleksandr Totoonov is a Member of the Committee on Culture, Science, and Information, Federation Council of the Russian Federation. On March 1, 2014, Totoonov publicly supported the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine.

Oleg Panteleev is the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Parliamentary Issues. On March 1, 2014, Panteleev publicly supported the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine.

Sergey Naryshkin has been the Chairman of the Government Duma of the Federal Gathering of the Russian Federation since December, 2011. Additionally, he is a member of the National Security Council of the Russian Federation and of the United Russia party.

Victor Ivanov has been director of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) of the Russian Federation since May 15, 2008; he was appointed as a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on May 25, 2008. Ivanov has served in a number of other government positions prior to that; he was Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation from 2004 – 2008; and Deputy Chief of the Administration of the Russian Federation from 2000 – 2004. Ivanov joined the KGB in 1977 and eventually rose to become the Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service. Ivanov is a close ally of Putin and served alongside Putin as the chief of staff of the St. Petersburg Mayor’s office in 1994 when Putin was first deputy head of the city’s administration.

Igor Sergun is the head of Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU) and is Deputy Chief of the General Staff.

Sergei Ivanov is the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

Alexei Gromov is the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

Andrei Fursenko is an aide to the President of the Russian Federation and has been in that position since May 21, 2012. Fursenko has held a number of positions in the Government of the Russian Federation since 2001, including Minister of Education and Science from 2004 – 2012. Although not being designated for being a member of the Russian leadership’s inner circle, Fursenko first met Putin in 1993 and they remain closely associated.

Vladimir Yakunin was appointed as chairman of the board of the Russian state-owned company Russian Railways on June 15, 2005; he has remained as head of the company ever since. Yakunin is being designated because of his official position in the Russian government, but he is also a close confidant of Putin. Yakunin regularly consults with Putin on issues regarding the Russian Railways company. In addition, Yakunin accompanies Putin on many domestic and international visits. Yakunin met Putin while both were working in St. Petersburg. Yakunin decided to create a business center in the city and contacted Putin for his support. In addition, Yakunin became a member of the board of the Baltic Maritime Steamship Company on Putin’s instructions. Yakunin and Putin were also neighbors in the elite dacha community on the shore of Lake Komsomolsk and they served as cofounders of the Ozero Dacha Cooperative in November 1996.

Vladimir Kozhin was appointed the Head of Administration under the President of the Russian Federation by Putin on January 21, 2000. He has served continuously in that position until the present time. Kohzin is responsible for overseeing a staff of 60,000, over a hundred enterprises and institutions including the Kremlin and several other government buildings, and over four thousand vehicles. Kohzin’s positions have been variously referred to as Head of Administration, Head of the Presidential Affairs Office, Head of the Presidential Business Management Directorate of the Russian Federation, and head of the Presidential Property Management Directorate.

Members of the Inner Circle

The following individuals are being designated because each is controlled by, has acted for or on behalf of, or has provided material or other support to, a senior Russian government official.
Gennady Timchenko is one of the founders of Gunvor, one of the world’s largest independent commodity trading companies involved in the oil and energy markets. Timchenko’s activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin. Putin has investments in Gunvor and may have access to Gunvor funds.

Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg have provided support to Putin’s pet projects by receiving and executing high price contracts for the Sochi Olympic Games and state-controlled Gazprom. They have made billions of dollars in contracts for Gazprom and the Sochi Winter Olympics awarded to them by Putin. Both brothers have amassed enormous amounts of wealth during the years of Putin’s rule in Russia. The Rotenberg brothers received approximately $7 billion in contracts for the Sochi Olympic Games and their personal wealth has increased by $2.5 billion in the last two years alone.

Yuri Kovalchuk is the largest single shareholder of Bank Rossiya and is also the personal banker for senior officials of the Russian Federation including Putin. Kovalchuk is a close advisor to President Putin and has been referred to as one of his “cashiers.”

The following entity is being designated because it is controlled by, has acted for or on behalf of, or has provided material or other support to, senior Russian government officials.

Bank Rossiya (??? ?? ??????) is the personal bank for senior officials of the Russian Federation. Bank Rossiya’s shareholders include members of Putin’s inner circle associated with the Ozero Dacha Cooperative, a housing community in which they live. Bank Rossiya is also controlled by Kovalchuk, designated today. Bank Rossiya is ranked as the 17th largest bank in Russia with assets of approximately $10 billion, and it maintains numerous correspondent relationships with banks in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. The bank reports providing a wide range of retail and corporate services, many of which relate to the oil, gas, and energy sectors.

As a result of Treasury’s action, any assets of the persons designated today that are within U.S. jurisdiction must be frozen. Additionally, transactions by U.S. persons or within the United States involving the individuals and entity designated today are generally prohibited.

Lucky for this administration there are 142,470,244 other people in Russia who they can sanction before they get to Putin himself. That should last them a good long while so they can look like they’re doing something.

According to the Associated Press, Cristina Fernandez, the Argentine president compares the US position on the Crimea to our position on the Falkland Islands;

During a speech in Paris, Cristina Fernandez compared the referendum in the Black Sea peninsula next to Russia to last year’s referendum by Falkland Islanders to remain a British territory. The southern Atlantic islands are known in Spanish as the “Islas Malvinas” and Argentina insists that Britain usurped them 180 years ago.

“Something that is fundamental for preserving world peace, for respecting international law, is to not have a double standard when it is time to make decisions. You can’t be in favor of territorial integrity in Crimea and against territorial integrity with the Malvinas in Argentina,” Fernandez said.

While most Latin American nations support Argentina’s position on the islands, citizens of the Falkland Islands Government voted by 99.8 percent to remain British.

Yeah, well, don’t expect consistency from this administration, dear. Remember how they supported the Honduran people against their president at the same time they were not supporting the Iranian people against their president. I don’t support Fernandez in any way, shape or form, however she does represent how the Obama Administration is losing support, not only from most Americans, but also his foreign allies. But I do expect him to flip on this one, on the advise of Dumber…er…I mean, Biden.

The Washington Times reports that the Obama Administration is not considering military options to deal with their problems in the Crimea. At least we can all agree on that;

White House press secretary Jay Carney said military action is “certainly not at the forefront of discussions” among the president and his top advisers, saying that Mr. Obama is looking instead at imposing further economic sanctions against Russian leaders for the takeover of Crimea.

[…]

“You can expect further costs to be imposed on Russia,” Mr. Carney said.

Some Republicans in Congress are calling for the U.S. to send military aid to Ukraine.

Mr. Carney said the president is very “clear-eyed” about his contentious relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he has been from the start of his presidency.

I hope Dumb and Dumber aren’t lying this time. It’s about time they learned to get themselves out of a jam without rattling sabers and sending the troops they treat so shabbily as their first response.

Their whole problem is that they caved to the Russians on every issue before this one from the missile shield for our allies in Europe and they caved on Syria. That sent the message to Russia that we’ll never stand in their way. And where is the UN’s paper tiger disapproval of Russia’s actions that solves all of the world’s problems?

Chief Tango sends us a link from the Washington Post which reports that Joe Biden is uncharacteristically behaving himself while he tours Europe to buck-up our image there in the wake of the annexation of the Crimea this week. But, they admit that, Biden being Biden, he did inflate his support and his record of supporting Poland while in the Senate;

There was but one minor slip in Warsaw Tuesday when he met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“Fifteen years ago,” he said, “I was honored as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee to lead the fight for Poland’s admission into NATO.” But it turns out Republican Sen. Jesse Helms (N.C.) was chairman back then and led the effort in committee and in the Senate to grant the country’s entry into NATO.

Biden, at the time was the ranking Democrat on the committee and, as Bloomberg News reported, was slow to embrace making that move for fear of alienating the Russians.

So, that statement was completely true, well, except for the fact that he wasn’t the chairman of the committee and he worried more about the Russians’ feelings than those of the Poles. Other than those two minor points, he was right. Of course, those two points were the only points in the statement.

I’m sure that the fact he was hired as a foreign policy expert, and the fact that not allowing Poland into NATO is yet another thing in regards to our foreign policy that he was wrong about, among the long list of things Biden has been wrong about for decades, it has nothing to do with why we get no respect from the Euros, in general, and the Russians, in particular.

Joe Bite Me went to Poland to reassure our allies that even though Russia has pretty much ignored the sanctions that the Obama Administration levied on seven of Vlad Putin’s inner circle, the Poles can still depend on us to stand with them as the old Soviet Union encroaches on it’s former empire. from the Washington Post;

Over two days, Biden will meet with the leaders of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all NATO members with old memories of Soviet domination and new fears of an expansionist Russia under Putin.

[…]

Biden emphasized Tuesday that the United States has deployed 12 F-16 fighter jets to Poland in recent weeks and delivered another 10 F-15s to the Baltic states for air patrol programs. He announced additional U.S. military training for Poland’s army.

But Biden did not offer changes to administration plans for a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, which Obama adjusted upon taking office at a time he was pursuing a “reset” in Russian relations.

Yeah, well, the only thing that would give Putin pause in his ambitions is if we did re-energize the missile shield for Eastern Europe. It’s the only thing that scares the Russians because a missile defense is what broke up the old Soviet Union. But, ya know, the last person I want to see at my door after my neighbor is robbed and his wife raped is Joe Bite Me. He has no credibility in his own party, let alone internationally.

I’m surprised that his advice to Poland wasn’t to line up their army along the Russian frontier and fire off their shotguns to scare away the Russkies. Or he could have given them a long history lesson on how they were better off under the Soviets than they are now.

I thought long and hard about who could be a better choice to send and reassure Eastern Europe, but you know, among that collection of morons who the President has surround himself with, there really are no better people – which should make them all feel bad about themselves – no one better than Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, Putin signed a treaty with Crimea absorbing it into Russia, however legal that is. From Fox News;

The signing follows a referendum on Sunday in which residents of Ukraine’s southern region overwhelmingly backed the move. The treaty still must be approved by Russia’s Constitutional Court and ratified by both houses of parliament. Those steps are considered mere formalities.

Putin signed the treaty with Crimea’s prime minister and parliament speaker following a televised address to the nation, in which he vigorously defended Crimea’s vote as a restoration of historical justice.

Putin has accused the West of encouraging unrest in Ukraine in order to break its historic ties with Russia, and dismissed Western criticism of the Crimean vote as illegitimate.

So Putin is visibly shaken by the tough stance taken against him by the administration.