West prepares sanctions as Russia presses for ‘full-scale invasion

March 14, 2014 | By hromedia | Reply More

Mar 14, – The European Union is expected to impose travel bans and asset freezes on Monday on dozens of Russians involved in Moscow’s gradual takeover of Crimea and will choose from a list of up to 130 names over the weekend, European diplomats said.

Moscow shipped more troops and armor into Crimea on Friday and repeated its threat to invade other parts of Ukraine in response to violence in Donetsk on Thursday night, showing no sign of bowing to Western demands to pull back.

EU diplomats will choose from a long list of 120-130 possible Russian targets for sanctions on Sunday, as pro-Moscow authorities who have taken power in Crimea hold a vote to join Russia in the worst East-West confrontation since the Cold War.

But European diplomats dismissed a German newspaper report that said the list would include the heads of Russia’s two biggest companies, energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia would be guilty of a backdoor annexation of Crimea if its parliament ratified the Crimea referendum, which is taking place after an armed takeover of Crimea and gives voters no chance to say “no”.

Russia’s foreign minister, speaking after crisis talks with Kerry, played down his own ministry’s threat of wider conflict, saying Moscow had no plans to invade Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow forces have occupied state buildings.

But he said Russia would respect the referendum result.

Russia’s stock markets tumbled and the cost of insuring its debt soared on the last day of trading before the Crimea vote.

European officials told Reuters the EU was working on a five page list of 120-130 Russians who could be subjected to asset freezes and travel bans. An EU diplomat said he expected the final list of those to be sanctioned to be between “tens and scores” of people On Monday.

Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that Alexei Miller, boss of natural gas monopoly Gazprom, and Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s biggest oil firm Rosneft, would be among those targeted, along with senior ministers and Kremlin aides.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the Bild report and European diplomats dismissed it.

“(Business interests) is not the target initially, the focus is on the political decision that has been taken to act in Crimea and destabilize Ukraine,” said one diplomat involved in the negotiations.

Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said sanctions on his firm’s boss would be “stupid, petty and obvious sabotage of themselves most of all. I think it will primarily affect Rosneft’s business partners in the West in an extraordinary way.” Gazprom and the Kremlin declined to comment.

Press coordinator for HRO media – Norberto Lluch contributed to this report.