Ukraine Crisis: New Sanctions Target Russia

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 14 September 2014 | 00.02

A new round of Western sanctions against Russia have been imposed, with Moscow threatening possible retaliation.

The tit-for-tat economic penalties stem from Russia's actions in Ukraine.

The US Treasury Department announced its latest moves, targeting Russia's financial, energy and defence sectors, on Friday afternoon - hours after fresh sanctions were implemented by the European Union (EU) in Brussels.

Both the EU and the US have said the sanctions can be withdrawn within weeks if the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine holds, though it is claimed Russian troops remain there in support of separatists.

Rosneft logo BP holds a stake of almost 20% in Rosneft

The EU's new measures included limiting Russia's access to financial markets and targeting 24 more officials with travel bans and asset freezes.

Those individuals include leading politicians Duma deputy speaker Igor Lebedev and nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Russia's top oil producers and pipeline operators Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom are on the list of Russian state-owned firms that will not be allowed to raise capital or borrow on European markets.

The measures forbid EU companies from engaging in new contracts in oil drilling, exploration and related services in Russia's Arctic, deep sea and shale oil projects. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with high-ranked officials representing Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the European Union in Minsk. President Putin has denied Russian troops are in eastern Ukraine

Such measures threaten to hit earnings at BP, which has a near-20% stake in Rosneft.

The FTSE 100 company revealed in July that its share of Rosneft underlying net income was $1bn in the second quarter of 2014 - revenue that is crucial to BP as it continues its recovery from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Confirmation that the fresh sanctions had been agreed in Brussels drew a furious response from Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin warned they always caused "certain damage", including to those who introduced them. 

Members of the pro-Russian rebels, who are prisoners-of-war, stand in front of a bus they wait to be exchanged, north of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine Prisoner exchanges have been taking place as part of the ceasefire

The Russian Interfax news agency quoted foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as saying the EU had "chosen to undermine the Ukriane peace process".

Russia has denied any involvement in the fighting in Ukraine, despite Western accusations that it has been arming separatist rebels and deploying troops in the neighbouring former Soviet republic since the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March.

Nato said on Friday that it believed Russia still had 1,000 troops on the ground in Ukraine, where prisoner exchanges have been taking place following months of skirmishes.

Many EU member states had been loath to increase the sanctions against Russia for fear of jeopardising their close trade relationships with Moscow.

Firms in countries such as Germany, which rely on Russian gas for energy, fear Russia will respond to the sanctions by turning off the taps.

Russia, which has revised sharply down its own growth estimates for 2014 amid plunging stock market and rouble values, had already issued a veiled threat that it could ban Western airlines from using Russian airspace - a move that would lead to higher fuel costs and delays for flights to Asia by European airlines.

Carriers had already had to lengthen journey times to bypass airspace over eastern Ukraine in the wake of the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in July - widely blamed on pro-Russian separatists.


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