Russian could face additional sanctions if it proceeds with formal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region or takes further military action in Ukraine, a senior US official said yesterday.
“There is ‘concrete evidence’ that some ballots arrived ‘pre-marked’ in Sunday’s secession referendum in Crimea and other voting anomalies were also detected,” another US official said after Washington announced visa bans and asset freezes on 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Meanwhile, the European Union also took a cautious approach to imposing sanctions against Moscow yesterday, targeting 21 people in Russia and Crimea while leaving open the possibility of adding harsher economic measures when EU leaders meet later this week.
Those targeted include politicians responsible for calling for and organising Sunday’s referendum in Crimea, when 97 percent of voters decided the region should secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The EU says the referendum was illegal and does not recognise the result.
“More ... measures in a few days,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said on Twitter, after announcing the decision taken by EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
His Czech counterpart, Lubomir Zaoralek, said earlier that any decisions taken yesterday would be the “first set”.
“I would not rule out that this list can be widened at the next meeting of the Council,” he said, referring to an EU summit on Thursday and Friday.
European officials have said they are determined to punish Russia for its actions in Crimea, imposing sanctions including travel bans and asset freezes on those responsible.
However, EU sanctions require unanimity among all 28 member states and there are several countries, including Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Portugal, which have reservations about moving too quickly.
As a result, yesterday’s move was not as far-reaching as initially hoped. At the end of last week, the EU had drawn up a master list of 120-130 names for possible sanctions, which has now been whittled down.
Some EU governments, including Poland, had pushed to add a few more names yesterday but failed to win sufficient backing.
Tightening the screw
One EU diplomat said out of the 21 targeted people, 10 were Russian politicians, three were military officials and eight were Crimeans.
The full list of names will be published when the travel bans and asset freezes take effect.
There are few signs that the threat of sanctions is having an impact on the ground in Crimea or on Russia, although the threat of sanctions has unnerved investors.
Officials in Crimea formally applied to join Russia on Monday and the head of the local parliament said Ukrainian military units on the peninsula would be disbanded.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will address a joint session of Russia’s parliament on Crimea on today, when it is possible the secession will be formalised.
