Tag: sanctions against Russia

The Kremlin is making conciliatory noises to capitalise on yesterday’s release of Nadiya Savchenko in exchange for two captured Russian servicemen.

Staunton, September 24 The apparent agreement of US President Barack Obama to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next week in New York to discuss Syrian affairs represents a new Munich in which one side focuses on “peace in our time” and the other pockets recognition of his aggression while planning for more, Andrey Illarionov […]

Russian spokesmen at home and abroad regularly tell us that sanctions are a failure and that the government does not care about them. Diplomatic reports also suggest that Putin told Secretary of State Kerry in Sochi that he could take the sanctions as Russia does not care about them. Undoubtedly Moscow would like us to […]

Staunton, December 2 – Many in Ukraine and elsewhere think that falling oil prices or increased Western sanctions or more sensible people in his entourage will convince Vladimir Putin to change course and end his aggressive policies, but they are wrong because none of these things will affect Putin’s pursuit of his goals, according to […]

Staunton, November 22 – When the Ukrainian crisis began, some commentators in the West suggested that NATO would not in the end fight to defend the Baltic countries even though the latter are full members of NATO by asking “who is prepared to die for Narva?” But now a senior US State Department has given […]

The offices at VTB headquarters in Moscow’s burgeoning new financial district, which lays a short hop away from the Kremlin, were eerily quiet. No one was talking as every employee was gathered around the TV waiting for President Obama to announce the first series of sanctions against Russian and Crimean officials in response to Russia’s […]