Kerry Gives Russia Monday Deadline

[Dianne]

http://investmentwatchblog.com/show...ine-jittery-customers-run-on-banks-in-crimea/

John Kerry: Russia has until Monday to reverse course in Ukraine

Secretary of State John Kerry warned of serious repercussions forRussia on Monday if last-ditch talks over the weekend to resolve the crisis in Ukraine failed to persuade Moscow to soften its stance.

Kerry will travel to London for a Friday meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ahead of a Sunday referendum vote in theCrimea region to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.

U.S. and European officials argue that Moscow is orchestrating the referendum and waging an intimidation campaign with thousands of Russian troops controlling the region. If Russian-backed lawmakers in Crimea go through with the Sunday referendum, Kerry said the U.S. and its European allies will not recognize it as legitimate under international law.

The U.S. and Europe on Monday would then unite to impose sanctions on Russia, Kerry told aSenate Appropriations subcommittee Thursday during a hearing on the State Department’sbudget.

“There will be a response of some kind to the referendum itself,” Kerry said. “If there is no sign [from Russia] of any capacity to respond to this issue … there will be a very serious series of steps on Monday.”

http://washingtonexaminer.com/john-...-to-reverse-course-in-ukraine/article/2545610

China Warns West Not To Enforce Sanctions Against Russia

“Sanctions could lead to retaliatory action, and that would trigger a spiral with unforeseeable consequences,” warns China’s envoy to Germany adding that “we don’t see any point in sanctions.” On the heels of Merkel’s warning that Russia risked “massive” political and economic damage if it did not change course, Reuters reports ambassador Shi Mingde urged patience saying “the door is still open” for diplomacy (though we suspect it is not) ahead of this weekend’s referendum. Russia’s Deputy Economy Minister Alexei Likhachev responded bypromising “symmetrical” sanctions by Moscow. So now we have China joining the fray more aggressively…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-13/china-warns-west-not-enforce-sanctions-against-russia

 

[specsaregood]

./

 

[mad cow]

Red Lines in the sand
Fall in the sea
Eventually.

 

[DFF]

What right does this horse-headed mofo have to dictate to Russia when and what it should do about anything!??

It's absolutely ridiculous what Mr. Ed is proposing, and it could be dangerous.

Russia is not some third world country in the Middle East.

They could however, with the press of a button, turn the US into a third world country.

It's not worth it to tangle with them over shitty, bankrupt Ukraine. Not worth it at all.

 

[69360]

Whatever. On Monday Kerry will announce Russia better listen to him by Friday or he will get really mad and he means it this time.

Russia is keeping Crimea. There is not going to be a shooting war between superpowers over a little country like Ukraine. Nobody in Washington really cares, this is all theatrics.

 

[Henry Rogue]

What right does this horse-headed mofo have to dictate to Russia when and what it should do about anything!??

It's absolutely ridiculous what Mr. Ed is proposing, and it could be dangerous.

Russia is not some third world country in the Middle East.

They could however, with the press of a button, turn the US into a third world country.

It's not worth it to tangle with them over shitty, bankrupt Ukraine. Not worth it at all.

Not only is it not worth it, it's bad policy for all economies concerned. U.S. government needs to get out of world affairs and let markets fix governments mess.

 

[Hyperion]

US leadership is really stupid or they're doing someone else's bidding.

The idea that Crimeans have no right to self-determination through a democratic process but the Kosovars, Sudanese and others do is laughable. The idea that this vote is illegitmate but the coup d'etat in Kiev was alright is also difficult to explain.

 

[phill4paul]

Lol. All you can do is laugh any more.

 

[FindLiberty]

This has to be some sort of a scripted “play” that is intended to lead/mislead the world's great unwashed masses and allow the puppet masters to apparently save face while they proceed with their secret diabolical NWO plans.

Or, it’s just another embarrassing example of failed international diplomacy with this cocky, set-up-to-fail military brinkmanship dare that threatens to piss all the way across the deep pond and land right in Russia and China’s back yards.

How will it look if/when they call his bluff? Is this going to be the start of WW3 that's supposed to fix the poor economy?

 

[CPUd]

LOL Lindsey Graham: "Let me know what I can do to help with Boehner"

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2014/03/13/sot-lindsey-graham-hot-mic.cnn.html

 

[puppetmaster]

What....? Kerry you ass, you going to tell them they can't use our dollars any longer? And china too....you my dumbass are full of BS

 

[Dianne]

LOL Lindsey Graham: "Let me know what I can do to help with Boehner"

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2014/03/13/sot-lindsey-graham-hot-mic.cnn.html

Sorry, but the visual of that "let me know what I can do to help with Boehner" made me puke, lol ... I volunteer Graham, McCain, Obama, Holder, Peter King to be the first five boots on the ground. Great leaders always first on the battlefield. And I have "RESPET" (the way Obama spells it), for those five in doing so; so we will wait and see which one of those numb nuts are first to carry the banner across the Ukraine border.

 

[2young2vote]

It isn't about Ukraine, it is about maintaining the USA's position as the top dog in the world.

 

[politics]

Moscow won't exclude sanctions to counter US and EU - Ministry
http://rt.com/business/russia-us-eu-sanctions-546/

Russia is ready to retaliate with counter sanctions against the EU and US if they go ahead with economic measures against Russia over tension in Crimea, the Russian Economic Ministry has said.

"We hope that there will only be targeted political sanctions, and not a broad package affecting economic trade,” Deputy Economic Development Minister Aleksey Likhachev said.

“Our sanctions will be, of course, similar,” he added.

One way Russia plans on shielding itself from pending sanctions is by boosting trade in other currencies, not the US dollar.

“We need to increase trade volume conducted in national currencies. Why, in relation to China, India, Turkey and other countries, should we be negotiating in dollars? Why should we do that? We should sign deals in national currencies- this applies to energy, oil, gas, and everything else,” Aleksey Ulyukaev, the Minister of Economic Development said in an interview with the Vesti 24 TV channel.

The Duma, Russia’s parliament, is drafting legislation to allow Moscow to freeze assets of Western companies and individuals in the event sanctions are imposed following the Crimea referendum vote on March 16.

The bill would give “the president and government opportunities to defend our sovereignty from threats,” according to its author, Andrey Klishas, as quoted by RIA Novosti on March 5.

The US Congress has already denounced Russia’s actions in Ukraine. On Tuesday, lawmakers passed a resolution that urges the US to “to work with our European allies and other countries to impose visa, financial, trade and other sanctions on senior Russian Federation officials, majority state-owned banks and commercial organizations, and other state agencies, as appropriate.”

Earlier this week the European Union threatened to impose further sanctions on Russia starting on March 17, after the referendum in Crimea takes place on Sunday. Speaking to the German parliament, Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted sanctions would be needed if Russia "continues its course of the past weeks" in Ukraine.

"It would not only change the European Union's relationship with Russia. No, this would also cause massive damage to Russia, economically and politically," Merkel said Thursday.

The decision on sanctions was made, “especially on the procedure of introducing sanctions,” Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. “The consequence of this will be the start of sanctions on Monday,” he added.

However, China’s ambassador to Germany Shi Mingde, warns of the global economic affect sanctions against Russia could hold. Mingde said the geo-political tiff between Russia and the West could “spiral” into chaos.

President Putin and the foreign ministry have both said sanctions against Russia could backfire, and spill over into the global economy.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced any Western-led sanctions as “hasty and ill-considered”, and President Putin said squeezing economically would cause “mutual damage”.

If extreme Iran-style sanctions are imposed on Russian exports, the EU would be much more exposed than the US.

Europe imports nearly one third of its gas from resource-rich Russia, and some countries are completely dependent on Russian gas.

While the US and Russia trade very little, Russia is Europe’s biggest customer, and the $13 trillion economy would suffer if trade with Russia was halted overnight.

 

[RJB]

Lol. All you can do is laugh any more.

You can stock up on preps.

But yeah. It's either laugh or cry. And my dad didn't raise me to cry.

 

[Voluntarist]

xxxxx

 

[georgiaboy]

“Our sanctions will be, of course, similar,” he added.

Ha! i can hear the Russian brogue rolling across that line.

 

[Kotin]

Kerry's deadlines often make the US look so very foolish.. I'm sure this is one of those.

 

[CPUd]

Link in my previous post gives a bit more context:

 

[Spikender]

Of course, we all know Lindsey Graham is a piece of shit. Even neocons are starting to hate him.

On subject, more foolishness from this Admin. I still can't believe all this pressure is being put on Russia over Ukraine. It's also hypocritical, considering all the bullshit stunts our Government has pulled abroad for the last century. Russia is also a large country and very modern, it's not like the United States is dealing with some small country with no allies here.

These people act like the Cold War never ended and that Russia is still some boogeyman to defeat. I'm not a fan of Russia, as in many ways they mirror things I dislike about the United States, but that's all the more reason to not get involved with them unless they directly threaten us. Russia moving in on Crimea, which has already expressed that they would like to join Russia, is just silly and a waste of time and resources. I can already hear the pity party train from the Government gearing up to sell this to the public. It's already began, it's just going to keep chugging down the railroad at this point.