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MOSCOW – Russia’s deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama’s sanction against him today asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list.
The Obama administration hit 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials with sanctions today as punishment for Russia’s support of Crimea’s referendum. Among them: aides to President Vladimir Putin, a top government official, senior lawmakers, Crimean officials, the ousted president of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian politician and businessman allegedly tied to violence against protesters in Kiev.
It remains to be seen whether the sanctions will dissuade Russia from annexing Crimea, but one an early clue that they will not be effective came just hours later when President Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea as an independent state, perhaps an early step towards annexation.
Is Obama trying to kill Putin by causing him to laugh himself to death? http://t.co/4kiV6SlKYw #tcot
— Howard Notelling (@BluegrassPundit) March 17, 2014◼ Krauthammer: If Obama thinks that sanctioning seven Russians is a sanction, he’s living in a different world - HotAir
As Krauthammer puts it, “if he thinks that sanctioning seven Russians, out of a population of, what, 150 million, is a sanction, he’s living in a different world.” I don’t know about Dr. K’s suggestion that we could get the Europeans to join in on real, robust economic sanctions, given their degree of energy dependence on Russia, but today’s announcement definitely amounts to little more than weaksauce symbolic gesture...
◼ Bolton: US Sanctions Against Russia 'So Weak It's Embarrassing' - Newsmax
The sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States in response to its invasion of Crimea were "so weak that it's embarrassing," and would have no effect on future threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, said former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.RETALIATE: PUTIN TARGETS US SENATORS...
"I mean, naming 11 individuals and imposing visa restrictions on them and freezing their assets in the United States — it is nothing in the big picture," Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News' "America's News HQ" on Monday.
The sanctions were especially timid, Bolton explained, since Putin had "put thousands of Russian troops across an international border" and held a "Soviet-style" referendum in Crimea, where 97 percent of voters cast ballots Sunday to return to Russian rule. On Monday, the Crimean parliament formally requested that Russia annex the breakaway peninsula.
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