西方国家对俄罗斯的经济制裁

西方国家对俄罗斯的经济制裁 Content: Passage 1 US, Europe impose tough new sanctions on Russia Passage Two US should stop playing role of cop Qs: What is the purpose for sanctions on Russia? What specific measures do they take so as to warn Russia? Passage 1 US, Europe impose tough new sanctions on Russia WASHINGTON - Spurred to action by the downing of the Malaysian airliner, the European Union approved dramatically tougher economic sanctions Tuesday against Russia, including an arms embargo and restrictions on state-owned banks. US President Barack Obama swiftly followed with an expansion of US penalties targeting key sectors of the Russian economy. Building on measures unveiled two weeks ago, the United States expanded its sanctions to more Russian banks and defense companies, and blocked the exports of specific goods and technology to Russia 's energy sector, Obama told reporters at the White House. He said that the United States is formally suspending credit that encourages exports to Russia and financing for economic development projects in Russia. "Today is a reminder that the United States means what it says and we will rally the international community in standing up for the rights and freedom of people around the world," Obama said. "If Russia continues on this current path, the costs on Russia will continue to grow," Obama said. The US Treasury Department said in a statement that the US imposed sanctions against three state-owned Russian banks, namely Bank of Moscow, Russian Agricultural Bank, and VTB Bank OAO. The move prohibits US persons from providing new financing to the three financial institutions, limiting their access to US capital markets. The Treasury Department also designated and blocked the assets of United Shipbuilding Corporation, a defense technologies firm based in St. Petersburg. "The major sanctions we're announcing today will continue to ratchet up the pressure on Russia, including the cronies and companies that are supporting Russia's illegal actions in Ukraine, " Obama said, adding that the existing sanctions had made a weak Russian economy even weaker. The new punitive measures came after the European Union announced earlier in the day that it has agreed a package of " significant" additional restrictive measures targeting sectorial cooperation and exchanges with Russia. These decisions will limit access to EU capital markets for Russian state-owned financial institutions, impose an embargo on trade in arms, establish an export ban for dual-use goods for military end users, and curtail Russian access to sensitive technologies particularly in the field of the oil sector, according to a statement by the European Council. The new package reinforces the recently expanded listing of persons and entities "undermining Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty," the statement said. It also strengthens the restriction of investment and trade with Crimea and Sevastopol and the reassessment of the Russia-EU bilateral cooperation "with a view to reducing the level of the cooperation," said the statement. The package is meant as "a strong warning" and "a powerful signal" to Russia that "destabilizing Ukraine or any other Eastern European neighboring country will bring heavy costs to its economy, " according to the statement. The EU also emphasized that it remains ready to "reverse" its decisions, and reengage with Russia "when it starts contributing actively and without ambiguities to finding a solution to the Ukrainian crisis." The United States has accused Russia of supporting militants in eastern Ukraine who were allegedly responsible for the downing of a Malaysian jetliner that killed 298 people on board. While the West claimed that pro-independence insurgents in eastern Ukraine shot down the airliner with a surface-to-air missile, Russia challenged the allegations, demanding the United States make public relevant satellite pictures. On Tuesday, Obama denied that the West is at a new Cold War with Russia, emphasizing that "it is a very specific issue related to Russia's unwillingness to recognize that Ukraine can chart its own path." US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier Tuesday that the fighting between Ukrainian forces and the rebels in the eastern region has prevented investigators from obtaining necessary evidence from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. "While the Russians have said that they want to de-escalate the conflict, their actions have not shown a shred of evidence that they really have a legitimate desire to end the violence and end the bloodshed," Kerry said after a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin at the State Department. Passage Two US should stop playing role of cop On April 29, the United States government accused Chinese businessman Li Fangwei of opening shell companies to sell missile parts to Iran, a country under US sanctions. Moreover, the US State Department has announced a $5-million reward for any person providing information leading to Li's arrest. The US government had reportedly imposed restrictions on Li and his companies citing the same reasons in 2011 and 2013. But this is the first time that it has announced a reward for his arrest. The US government's accusations which are groundless to begin with against a foreign citizen are based on its domestic laws instead of UN resolutions. They reflect the US' economic unilateralism and power politics, which will have negative effects on China's financial security. As a "silent but deadly" measure, economic sanctions play an instrumental role in the US foreign policies. By imposing such sanctions, the US aims to interfere in and alter the normal economic activities of other countries or non-American enterprises. Some examples of such sanctions are trade boycott and embargo, and freezing financial assets of a country or enterprise. Recent decades have seen an increase in the use of economic sanctions by the US; in fact, it has imposed them quite frequently on "troubled countries" such as Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria and Sudan. Washington has accused Li of supplying missile parts to Teheran because he seems to have violated certain rules pertaining to the US' unilateral sanctions against Iran. Directly related to the US policy on nonproliferation and containment of Iran, these rules have forced many financial institutions such as Standard Chartered Bank and Deutsche Bank to sever their business ties with Teheran and pay huge fines for "violating" them. The US' unsolicited allegations or sanctions against other countries are against UN norms, even though many of the victim countries and enterprises are reluctant to challenge them. In Iran's case, the US has unilaterally extended the previous UN sanctions citing violation of nonproliferation norms. This has hurt Iran's economy and society, and even the normal business connections between Iran and other countries. Such sanctions are unlikely to endanger US businesses in Iran, though, because of the tense Washington-Teheran relationship and the limited commercial intercourse between them. But the sanctions pose a threat to many companies in China, Japan and Europe that are deeply engaged in trade with Iran. The US has used its dwindling dominance in the global financial field to unilaterally impose sanctions on other countries. Actually, the US has been practising unilateralism in diplomacy since the end of the Cold War when the collapse of the Soviet Union made it the sole superpower. Since its global military dominance is on the decline, the US has started exploiting the intensified globalization process by imposing economic sanctions on other countries, even some major ones, to force them to comply with its policies.