PRESS RELEASE

LaRouche: Obama/EU Sanctions Against Russia Violate Russia’s Sovereignty

Sept. 12, 2014 (EIRNS)—The European Council and the U.S. Obama Administration today imposed further sanctions on Russia. The new sanctions target the finance, energy, and defense sectors. The EU restricts three Russian energy companies, Rosneft, Transneft, and Gazprom Neft, from raising long-term debt on European capital markets.

The EU has also halted services which Russia needs to extract oil and gas in the Arctic, deep sea and shale extraction projects.

The export of any technology considered military dual-use has been banned from nine Russian companies, including the manufacturer of Kalashnikov rifles.

Five major Russian state-owned banks—Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), and Rosselkhozbank—have been banned from receiving any long-term (over 30-day) loans from EU companies.

Brussels has also added 24 individuals to the list, blocking travel to the EU and freezing assets. Russian members of parliament and businessmen, as well as politicians in Crimea and Donbass, are on the blacklist.

Later in the day on Friday, the Obama Administration followed suit announcing similar sanctions. Obama justified his lawless actions by babbling that

"We are implementing these new measures in light of Russia’s actions to further destabilize Ukraine over the last month, including through the presence of heavily armed Russian forces in eastern Ukraine."

On Thursday, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented that

"Brussels either fails to see, or is unwilling to see the real situation in Donbass, and does not want to get informed about the steps the parties are taking towards settlement."

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the new package of sanctions appears "somewhat strange," since this move actually subverts the peace process in Ukraine. "I don’t even understand what these present sanctions are related to," Putin told reporters after a meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. "Maybe someone does not like that the process has moved toward a peaceful scenario."

Putin pointed out that putting the Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, on the list of people sanctioned, may jeopardize the peace talks in Ukraine.

According to ITAR-TASS, Putin will agree with the proposal to impose sanctions in response to new Western penalty measures, if they are for the benefit of Russian manufacturers. "If the government concludes that some steps are in line with the interests of our economy, then we will do that. But if its just for the sake of showing how tough we are, showing our teeth to sustain losses due to that, we will not do so," he said.