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Posts tagged ‘sanctions’

EU Lawmakers Warn Sanctions Could Be Imposed on Tucker Carlson for Putin Interview

By: Jake Smith / February 08, 2024

Tucker Carlson may be threatened with sanctions by the European Union after traveling to Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pictured: Carlson speaks at a Turning Point Action USA conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on July 15, 2023. (Photo: Giorgio Viera/AFP/Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson could be threatened with sanctions by the European Union over his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to current and former members of the European Parliament.

Carlson traveled to Moscow and met with Putin for a yet-to-be-released interview about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and its global perception. Carlson could face sanctions or a travel ban to Europe from the EU governing bodies over his interview with Putin, former and current parliamentary members told Newsweek.

“As Putin is a war criminal and the EU sanctions all who assist him in that effort, it seems logical that the External Action Service examines [Carlson’s] case as well,” Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian prime minister and current EU Parliament member who has called for a travel ban to be imposed on Carlson, told Newsweek.

“Carlson is not being a real journalist since he has clearly expressed his sympathy for the Russian regime and Putin and has constantly disparaged Ukraine, the victim of Russian aggression,” Urmas Paet, former Estonia foreign minister and current Parliament member, told Newsweek. “So, for such propaganda for a criminal regime, you can end up on the list of sanctions. This concerns primarily travel ban to EU countries.”

In order to impose sanctions on Carlson, the EU External Action Service must consider the available evidence and then turn the case over to the European Council, made up of the bloc’s leaders, for a final decision, according to Newsweek; Members of Parliament cannot impose sanctions on an individual at their sole discretion.

One EU official told Newsweek that it would be necessary to implicate Carlson for his ties to Russia’s war effort, which would be “difficult and hard to prove.” Still, other former and current EU Parliament members insist Carlson is aiding in Russia’s hostilities and needs to face consequences for it.

“He is no longer a newsman, but a propagandist for the most heinous regime on European soil and the one which is most dangerous to our peace and security,” Luis Garicano, a former Parliament member, told Newsweek.

Carlson said on Wednesday he did not interview Putin out of support for the dictator but rather because he felt the need to show the U.S. and the West aspects of the war. Carlson feels that Western media has left important aspects of the war out of their coverage and said most people are either misinformed or not informed at all about the issue.

Carlson also warned that the war in Ukraine has “reshaped the global military and trade alliances” that have “upended the world economy.” He criticized Western media for positively portraying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “demand that the U.S. enter more deeply into a war in Eastern Europe and pay for it.”

The EU External Action Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation

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Political

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Hamas And Hezbollah Are the Symptoms, Iran Is the Disease

BY: CHUCK DEVORE | OCTOBER 20, 2023

Author Chuck DeVore profile

CHUCK DEVORE

VISIT ON TWITTER@CHUCKDEVORE

The U.S. response to Hamas’ Nazi-like massacre of Israelis, Americans, and anyone else in its murderous path has been, almost without exception, robust. But U.S. officials are largely missing the larger picture and risking being drawn into an escalation — on the enemy’s terms.

Hamas and Hezbollah are the symptoms; Iran is the disease.

But President Biden’s Oval Office address to the nation on Oct. 19 danced around the core issue of Iran’s financing, training, and encouragement of violent, brutal forces across the region and beyond, as well as its nuclear missile program. Thus, the gathering might of the U.S. Navy off the coast of Israel in the form of two aircraft carrier strike groups and a Marine Expeditionary Unit betrays unimaginative, linear thinking.

If used, American firepower would augment Israel’s own considerable military force. In theory, this threat helps to deter Hezbollah from unleashing its arsenal of 100,000 missiles on Israel, many of them sophisticated.

But, like Hamas, Hezbollah is expert at digging. They hide their missile launchers in an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers — all guarded by an air defense network that is likely to get lucky enough times to raise the specter of captured American pilots.

The last time U.S. naval aviation operated over Lebanon was in 1983, in response to the Beirut barracks bombing in October — an attack that Iranian authorities arrogantly claimed credit for in the past month. Until 9/11, it was the deadliest terror attack on Americans. Two months later, the Syrian military fired on U.S. Navy aircraft, shooting down two A-6 attack jets and capturing an officer.

Optimal Use of U.S. Air Force and Navy

If the incremental addition of American airpower is helpful to the pending effort to destroy Hamas while deterring a wider conflict, that role can more than adequately be filled by the U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Navy should instead be concentrating 2,000 miles to the east in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. There, the U.S. Navy would be playing to its unambiguous strength, enforcing sanctions against Iran by controlling the sea lines of communication that Iran depends on to generate the cash for its empire of terror.

Unfortunately, this would require a Biden administration that was both imaginative and strategic — and not in the thrall of a recently revealed Iranian influence operation that managed to place several advisors friendly to the Iranian mullahs in key national security positions since the Obama administration. Chief among these, Robert Malley, a longtime friend of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and an architect of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, a deal that focused exclusively on Iran’s nuclear program, rewarding the mullahs with cash and sanctions relief while greenlighting their missile program and global support for terror.

Iran’s Nuclear Program

Instead, Biden’s systematic appeasement of Iran, a continuation of the Obama-era policy that weirdly sought to use Iran as a counter to perceived Israeli intransigence on the Palestinian problem, has resumed. Up until the gruesome events of Oct. 7, Biden’s national security team was willfully blind to Iran’s bloody history of sponsoring terror and its determined drive to produce nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them.

As a result, U.N. sanctions against Iran’s nuclear, missile, and drone program — never well enforced by Biden — expired on Oct. 18 with the U.S. announcing its own unilateral set of sanctions. The U.S. continues to pretend these efforts are somehow slowing Iran’s drive to push its nuclear program to completion, while Russian use of Iranian combat drones in Ukraine reveals the prior sanctions regime as inadequate to the task.

Reagan-Era Lessons

The U.S. never fully grappled with the Iranian theocracy after the shah was toppled in 1979. During the Cold War, it was assumed that the Soviet Union would come to Iran’s aid and that the military cost of defeating the regime would be too high. Instead, the U.S. was content to see Iran tied down in a bloody stalemate against Iraq after the latter invaded in 1980.

As the war started to threaten oil exports out of the Gulf, America responded by providing a U.S. Navy escort to six Kuwaiti-owned super tankers in July 1987. After an escorting U.S. Navy ship struck a mine on April 14, 1988, the Reagan administration responded only four days later with Operation Praying Mantis. It was the Navy’s largest combat action since World War II, sinking an Iranian guided missile frigate, crippling a second, sinking four other boats, and destroying two militarized oil platforms at the cost of one helicopter with two crew lost.

The operation was thoroughly wargamed a year before, when it was determined that an unambiguously aggressive response to Iran would likely prevent the conflict from escalating. In other words, a disproportionate response would rob Iran of the ability to control the timing and mode of escalation, reducing U.S. casualties and preserving the peace.

Applying Force

This lesson from the Reagan era opens up a final consideration. Rather than following through on the foolish precedent of incentivizing hostage-taking via negotiation and cash payments, America should ditch the carrots and pick up the stick.

Imagine the transformative discussion over the current hostage crisis — and the forestalling of future hostage-taking by Iran and its proxies — if the U.S. were to announce that every hostage taken is worth $1 billion (or $1.171 billion if we wish to account for Bidenflation). That amount would be deducted from seized Iranian assets or taken from oil tankers filled with Iranian oil. The proceeds would compensate hostages and their families, with the remainder used to replenish the Pentagon’s waning stocks of armaments.

This is exactly the kind of naval power application the U.S. Navy was built for. Unfortunately, the radical cadres infesting the Biden administration’s national security staff would never allow such an idea to reach the desk of our cognitively impaired commander-in-chief.

Chuck DeVore is chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and a former California legislator, and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. He’s the author of “The Crisis of the House Never United—A Novel of Early America.”

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Islamic News, Political

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Dirty Hairy-Legs

A.F. BRANCO | on February 24, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-dirty-hairy-legs/

Putin doesn’t look like he’s quaking in his boots like Biden predicted as Russia invades Ukraine.

Biden Sanctions for Russia — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022**

Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and shared by President Donald Trump.

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Political

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Trump Puts The Sqeeze On Iran With Toughest Sanctions Yet — Here’s The 411

Written by Wes Walker on June 25, 2019

URL of the original posting site: https://clashdaily.com/2019/06/trump-puts-the-sqeeze-on-iran-with-toughest-sanctions-yet-heres-the-411/

Just because Trump wasn’t willing to spill blood over Iran’s new regional belligerence, doesn’t mean we’re going to sit back and take it. Trump is hitting them back a different way. First, there was the cyber attack. And now, the sanctions are being ramped up even further. Judging by how their leadership is squealing like a stuck pig, the sanctions have gotten their attention.

The rants are getting stupid.

Trump, you get no credit for so-called stopping the strike against Iran. Why was the unmanned drone in Iran’s airspace? Why the surveillance? Don’t provoke and then pretend innocence.

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) June 23, 2019

Oops. That one’s mad Maxine.

She just SOUNDS like an Iranian Mullah spitting bile against America. So wound up against Trump that’s she’ll even side with the world’s leading state sponsor of terror than agree with the President on, well, anything.

Their President resorted to name calling.

“The White House actions mean it is mentally retarded,” Rouhani said in a scathing televised address.

If he keeps that up, he’ll get Avenatti’s old spot in the fawning anti-Trump media. So what if Iran just defended their practice of executing homosexuals. Maybe being anti-Trump is far more important to some people that such ‘trivialities’.

President Trump announced on Monday that he was imposing new sanctions on Iran, stepping up a policy of pressuring the nation’s leaders and further squeezing the Iranian economy in retaliation for what the United States says are recent aggressive acts by Tehran.

The move came on top of actions taken by the administration this spring to cut off all revenues from Iranian oil exports, the lifeblood of the nation’s economy.

The new sanctions are aimed at preventing some top Iranian officials from using the international banking system or any financial vehicles set up by European nations or other countries.

…Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said the new sanctions order would bar Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and his office from access to the international financial system. The Treasury Department said it was also imposing sanctions on eight Iranian military commanders, including the head of a unit that the Americans say was responsible for shooting down an American drone last Thursday.
Source: NYT

Here he is pretending to take the high ground:

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Twitter that the “useless sanctioning” of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Zarif, who led Iran’s nuclear negotiations with world powers, “means the permanent closure of the doors of diplomacy.”

“Trump’s government is annihilating all of the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security,” said the spokesman, Abbas Mousavi.
Source: WaPo

They also said:

Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and has complied with restrictions to its atomic energy activities set out under the 2015 deal it negotiated with world powers, including the United States.

This is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, presuming to moralize about ‘established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security’? Wow, that’s a whole other level of chutzpah. Level with us — did John Kerry coach you to say that? Or did you come up with that all by yourself?

Either way, it sure sounds like something from the Obama administration would say, doesn’t it.

Why would they be so upset about the sanctions?

Maybe this article, published in May is a clue:

The powerful Lebanese Hezbollah militia has thrived for decades on generous cash handouts from Iran, spending lavishly on benefits for its fighters, funding social services for its constituents and accumulating a formidable arsenal that has helped make the group a significant regional force, with troops in Syria and Iraq.

But since President Trump introduced sweeping new restrictions on trade with Iran last year, raising tensions with Tehran that reached a crescendo in recent days, Iran’s ability to finance allies such as Hezbollah has been curtailed. Hezbollah, the best funded and most senior of Tehran’s proxies, has seen a sharp fall in its revenue and is being forced to make draconian cuts to its spending, according to Hezbollah officials, members and supporters.

Fighters are being furloughed or assigned to the reserves, where they receive lower salaries or no pay at all, said a Hezbollah employee with one of the group’s administrative units. Many of them are being withdrawn from Syria, where the militia has played an instrumental role in fighting on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad and ensuring his survival.
Source: PakistanDefense

It could hardly be described as being written from a Western perspective, but it confirms some of what we’ve known all along. Iran uses money to project their ideology through violent proxies to neighboring regions. When that money runs out, they lose the ability to project that ideology and violence. Without that money, Iran’s regional ‘leadership’ is nothing. At least some of their soldiers are more ‘hireling’ than ‘zealot’.

Said differently, Trump’s policy is getting the job done. The same job that wasn’t getting done under Obama/Biden.

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International Politics

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‘Violent Violation’: North Korea Issues New Threats Against US

Posted by GirlsJustWannaHaveGuns.com | August 7, 2017

URL of the original posting site: http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/violent-violation-north-korea-issues-new-threats-against-us/?

Looks like Kimberly Jon-un woke up in an extra pissed off mood on Monday.

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The United Nations imposed new sanctions on the communist nation after the country’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch. In response, North Korea vowed to hit the U.S. with a ‘thousands-fold’ revenge. As if it was our fault…

The rogue nation’s official propaganda news agency — KCNA — described the newest sanctions as “crimes” that were a “violent violation of our sovereignty” and a “heinous plot to isolate and stifle” the communist country.

The statements came after President Trump tweeted Sunday that he spoke with South Korean President Moon Jae-In. The tweet read: Just completed call with President Moon of South Korea. Very happy and impressed with 15-0 United Nations vote on North Korea sanctions.

The White House added both world leaders are “committed to fully implement all relevant resolutions and to urge the international community to do so as well.”

Nikki Haley — whom is U.S. Ambassador to the UN — called the resolution “the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime” and “the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.”

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Haley told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures “What we basically did was kicked them in the stomach, told them to stop and told them they are not going to put up with it anymore and the ball is now in North Korea’s court. They have a big decision to make. They can either respond by pulling back and said that they’re not going to be part of this reckless activity anymore, or they can see where it goes and we’ll continue to keep up the strength and keep up the activity to make sure that we stop them.”

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The sharp new U.N. sanctions also received a welcome boost on Sunday from China, North Korea’s economic lifeline, as Beijing called on its neighbor to halt its missile and nuclear tests.

For the U.S., it was a long-awaited sign of progress for Trump’s strategy of trying to enlist Beijing’s help to squeeze North Korea diplomatically and economically. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, meeting with North Korea’s top diplomat during the gathering in Manila, urged the North to “maintain calm” despite the U.N. vote.

“Do not violate the U.N.’s decision or provoke international society’s goodwill by conducting missile launching or nuclear tests,” Wang said.

The North’s statement issued Monday on state media came two days after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions, saying they were caused by a “heinous U.S. plot to isolate and stifle” North Korea.

It says the U.N. sanctions will never force the country to negotiate over its nuclear program or to give up its nuclear drive and that will take “action of justice” but didn’t elaborate.

–Fox News

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International Politics

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US sanctions Iran for ballistic missile launch

Authored By Jordan Fabian – 02/03/17 10:27 AM EST

URL of the original posting site: http://thehill.com/policy/international/317738-us-sanctions-iran-for-ballistic-missile-launch

US sanctions Iran for ballistic missile launch / © Getty

The U.S. slapped new sanctions on Iran on Friday after the Trump administration signaled it wanted to punish Tehran for its latest ballistic missile test.

The Treasury Department announced that 13 people and 12 companies face new restrictions, including several entities that support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and help the Iranian government procure materials for its missile program.

The individuals and companies — based in Iran, China, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates — are banned from doing business with U.S. institutions or American citizens.

Foreign nationals who provide support for them could be subject to additional U.S. sanctions, a senior administration official said.President Trump and his top aides have said they won’t tolerate provocative acts like the missile test that occurred Sunday, calling it a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution. The White House also included Iran on a list of nations whose citizens face a temporary ban on travel to the U.S. The more aggressive posture is a departure from the approach of former President Barack Obama, who sought closer ties with Tehran.

“Iran is playing with fire — they don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me!” Trump tweeted Friday morning.

Two days earlier, national security adviser Michael Flynn made a rare appearance before the White House press corps to announce the administration is putting Iran “on notice.” The approach has been cheered by national security hawks and congressional Republicans who criticized Obama for taking what they said was too soft of an approach toward Iran.

“This swift and decisive response proves that our new administration is serious about holding the Iranian regime accountable for its illicit behavior,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a statement.

Trump’s move also escalated tensions with Iran, which has said the missile tests are within their rights to conduct.

“Iran unmoved by threats as we derive security from our people. We’ll never initiate war, but we can only rely on our own means of defense,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter before the announcement.

While Trump has taken a tougher rhetorical line against Iran, Friday’s sanctions are similar to penalties imposed by Obama in response to Iran’s previous ballistic missile tests.

The decision to issue sanctions came after a review by the White House and agencies, officials said. While the Treasury Department has long researched new Iranian targets for sanctions, one official said “the launch of the missile was the triggering event.”

But the new punishments come after the Iran nuclear pact took effect last year, in which the U.S. and five nations lifted other sanctions related to the country’s nuclear program.

The Treasury Department said the fresh sanctions are “fully consistent with the United States’ commitments under the” nuclear agreement.

The U.S. did not reimpose penalties against individuals or entities who had sanctions against them lifted as part of the nuclear deal, a senior administration official said.

This story was updated at 11:35 a.m.

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The Iran deal will unchain top ayatollah’s terror slush fund

By Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer

URL of the original posting site: http://nypost.com/2015/08/09/the-iran-deal-will-unchain-top-ayatollahs-terror-slush-fund

: The Iran deal will unchain top ayatollah’s terror slush fund. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Photo: Getty Images

Hundreds of bad actors are set to be expunged from the US Treasury’s sanctions list as a result of the Iran nuclear deal signed last month in Vienna. Yet the most high-profile among them has gone strangely unnoticed: the country’s dictator since 1989, Ali Khamenei. According to the deal, within six to 12 months, Treasury will de-list more than three dozen banks, oil companies and other investments belonging to the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, a k a EIKO. Reportedly worth more than $95 billion, EIKO is controlled by the supreme leader.

EIKO was founded with the mandate of confiscating property from individuals linked to the shah’s system after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Khamenei broadened the mandate in 1991 to confiscate property from dissidents, too. EIKO officials have included some of Iran’s worst human-rights abusers.

Treasury slapped sanctions on EIKO and its subsidiaries back in June 2013, noting that the purpose of EIKO was “to generate and control massive, off-the-books investments, shielded from the view of the Iranian people and international regulators.” As one senior Obama administration official noted, Iran’s kleptocrats “profit from a shadowy network of off-the-books front companies . . . the Iranian government’s leadership works to hide billions of dollars in corporate profits earned at the expense of the Iranian people.”

A closer look at EIKO reveals that it maintains a stranglehold on the Iranian economy. The value of EIKO’s real-estate portfolio totals nearly $52 billion. EIKO’s investment arm is worth $40 billion. Its stakes in publicly traded companies total nearly $3.4 billion. EIKO maintains a complex network of front companies and subsidiaries abroad in places like Germany, Croatia, South Africa, the UAE, Turkey and beyond. These businesses were all flagged by the US government for illicit financial practices, including government corruption. As Treasury noted, EIKO made tens of billions of dollars alone through the exploitation of favorable loan rates from Iranian banks.

And they’ll all soon be off our sanctions list. Not because they have suddenly become legitimate. In fact, there’s no indication that their conduct has changed. The White House is simply trading them in for a purported diplomatic victory — even if it’s a temporary one, given that Iran must only wait 10 to 15 years to inherit a massive nuclear program, a short path to a bomb, intercontinental ballistic missiles and its economy immunized against future sanctions.

No matter how you slice it, this move undermines the mandate of the Treasury Department, which has spent the last decade building a powerful yet delicate sanctions architecture designed to punish Iran for its nuclear mendacity, ballistic-missile development, financial support for terrorist groups and backing of other rogue states like Bashar al-Assad’s Syria.

But above all, the goal was to shield the US-led global financial sector from Iran’s vast network of financial criminals and their illegal transactions.

The Obama Administration continues to insist that the nuclear deal won’t stop America from punishing Iran’s destabilizing activities across the Middle East. They say that the deal will keep sanctions on some of the worst actors within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which directs Iran’s external regional aggression, its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and its vast system of domestic repression. The Guards also control at least one-sixth of the Iranian economy, including strategic sectors — banking, energy, construction, industrial, engineering, mining, shipping, shipbuilding and others.

But Khamenei is the man who directs the activities of the Guards. Once EIKO is freed from the sanctions list, Khamenei will be free to invest billions around the world with impunity. With the benefit of American sanctions relief, and with the aid of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s supreme leader will now be able to tighten his stranglehold on the Iranian people — a side effect of the nuclear deal that has not garnered enough attention. At the same time, he’ll be under fewer restrictions to finance terror and bloodshed around the region.

Mark Dubowitz is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and its Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance. Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury terrorism finance analyst, is vice president for research at FDD.

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International Politics

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon

Flexing Their Muscle

Posted on August 8, 2014

Will Putin Realize That Russia Holds The Cards?

http://www.infowars.com/will-putin-realize-that-russia-holds-the-cards/

Europe has acquiesced to Washington’s drive to war with Russia, a war that is likely to be the final war for humanity

by Paul Craig Roberts | Infowars.com | August 7, 2014

More evidence, about which I hope to write at length, is piling up that Europe has acquiesced to Washington’s drive to war with Russia, a war that is likely to be the final war for humanity. By Russia’s low key and unthreatening response to Washington’s aggression, thereby giving the West the mistaken signal that Russia is weak and fearful, the Russian government has encouraged Washington’s drive to war.

It appears that the Russians’ greatest weakness is that capitalism has raised enough Russians to a comfortable living standard that the war that Washington is bringing to them is scary, and they want to avoid it in order to continue living like decadent Western Europeans.

The same thing happened to the once fierce Vandals in North Africa in the 6th century when the Vandals were exterminated by a small force from the Eastern Roman Empire. The Vandals had lost the valor that had given them a rich chunk of the Roman Empire.

Russia needs to save the world from war, but the avoidance of war requires Russia to make the costs clear to Europeans.

Faced with economic sanctions, essentially illegal and warlike actions, applied to various Russian individuals and businesses by Washington and Washington’s EU puppets and by Switzerland, a country taught to be more fearful of Washington than of Moscow, Russian President Putin has asked the Russian government to come up with countermeasures to be implemented in response to the gratuitous sanctions imposed against Russia.

But, Putin says, Russia must hold back: “Obviously we need to do it cautiously in order to support domestic manufacturers, but not hurt consumers.”

In other words, Putin wants to impose sanctions that are not really sanctions, but something that looks like tit for tat.

The amazing thing about Russia finding herself on the defensive about sanctions is that Russia, not Washington or the impotent EU, holds all the cards. Putin can bring down the economies of Europe and throw all of Europe into political and economic chaos simply by turning off the energy supply.

Putin would not have to turn off the energy supply for very long before Europe tells Washington good-bye and comes to terms with Russia. The longer Putin waits, the longer Europe has to prepare against Russia’s best weapon that can be used to peacefully resolve the conflict that Washington has orchestrated.

Washington’s aggressive moves against Russia will not stop until Putin realizes that he, not Washington, holds the cards, and plays them.

The world has had enough of Washington, its constant lies, its constant wars, and its bullying. Putin would do well to spend a few hours with Belisarius, Justinian the Great’s great general.

“When I treat with my enemies,” Belisarius said, “I am more accustomed to give than to receive counsel; but I hold in one hand inevitable ruin, in the other peace and freedom.”

That is precisely the position that Vladimir Putin is in with regard to Europe. In one hand he holds the ruin of Europe. In the other peace and freedom in the relations between Russia and Europe. He needs to call up the European “leaders” and tell them.

If Putin does not put his foot down hard and make clear to the Europeans what the stakes are, Washington will succeed in its determination to drive the world to war, and “exceptional and indispensable” Americans will die along with all the rest.

ABOUT THE AUTOR:

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

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Political

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Putin’s plan to defy world

Has tools needed to avoid more sanctions

Published: 20 hours ago

F. Michael Maloof staff writer forWND andG2Bulletin, is a former senior security policy analyst in the office of the secretary of defense.

Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

WASHINGTON – Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to disdain international pressure and continue extending Russian influence into eastern Ukraine, while creating a buffer zone against the Western-influenced portion controlled by Kiev, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Regional analysts say Putin’s tough stance is due to his increasing concern over Western encroachment into Russia’s sphere of influence and that he seeks to maintain another buffer zone, one between the Russian heartland and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

For those reasons, analysts expect Putin to continue to resist calls by the United States and some European countries to increase sanctions on Russia for its support of the rising insurrection in eastern Ukraine.

The U.S. recently decided to send military advisers to the Ukrainian government. Their duties are said to include assisting Ukrainian military forces with strategy and well as intelligence sharing, which appears to have been effective in directing land forces as well as the Ukrainian air force.

However, the Ukrainian rebels are maintaining strongholds in two principal cities, Donetsk and Luhansk, which are near the border with Russia. And Russia is expected to continue providing military supplies to the rebels.

Demand for increased sanctions intensified after the recent shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers on board the Boeing 777.

All sides acknowledge it was downed by a surface-to-air missile, probably the Russian Buk, or SA 11 Gadfly.

Both the Ukrainian government and the rebels had the missile, although the one in hands of the rebels was reportedly rolled back to Russia secretly, after indications that two of its missiles on a launcher of four were missing.

Amid U.S. demands for harsher sanctions, Putin knows the Europeans are hesitant to appear to be too strident against his country because of their dependency on Russian energy.

Additionally, Europeans, especially the Germans, are under increasing pressure from their industries to ignore Washington.

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The Germans also remain agitated with Washington over revelations that the National Security Agency spied on German citizens, including the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sources say the episode will mean continued cold relations between Germany and the U.S. for some time.

And there are reports Washington is getting fed up with Europe because of a lack of strong sanctions designed to inflict economic pain on the Russian economy.

The U.S. wants an end to European Union weapons deliveries to Russia, such as the $1.6 billion Mistral-class amphibious assault ship deal with France. The French intend to continue with the sale, according to sources.

With the Europeans saying they can’t afford to isolate Russia for economic and energy policy reasons, public comments from U.S. officials have become more strident in recent days.

Putin, however, realizes U.S. and European options are limited.

He also sees divisions even within the Kiev government on how to proceed. The Ukrainian parliament remains split among its nine different factions as the country faces rising economic problems and increasing pressure from Russia on the price for natural gas. The Russians have threatened to cut off Ukraine’s flow of natural gas if it doesn’t pay at least a portion of its multi-billion dollar debt for Russian energy.

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Crisis in Ukraine; Putin Poised to Retaliate Against Obama by Trashing Iran Deal

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/18/putin-set-to-retaliate-against-obama-by-trashing-iran-deal.html

07.18.14

Now that the U.S.-Russia relationship has broken down, Moscow could throw a wrench into the teetering nuclear negotiations with Iran.

The escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow, brought to fever by the MH17 airliner disaster, are finally to the point where they threaten to spoil the number one item on President Obama’s foreign policy agenda: the nuclear talks with Iran. The man doing the threatening is Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this week, Putin promised to retaliate against the United States for new sanctions targeting his friends and business associates, as well as large Russian defense, energy, and financial firms. On Thursday, Putin called President Obama to alert him a civilian jetliner had crashed over Eastern Ukraine, a tragedy the U.S. says was caused by a missile shot from a Russian-made SA-11 mobile surface to air missile system located in a separatist-held area.

Putin’s next call was to none other than the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.

“Mr. Putin and Mr. Rouhani exchanged views on the state of talks on Iran’s nuclear program,” stated the Kremlin readout of the call. “The two leaders also examined bilateral cooperation matters of mutual interest, including joint projects in the oil and gas sector and in peaceful nuclear energy.”

“An extension is the only thing the Iranians need to complete their bomb work. The whole point of the sanctions was to make sure that time is not on the side of the Iranians.”

U.S. officials, lawmakers, and experts, have been watching and waiting for Putin to use the Iran negotiations as a way to mess with Obama ever since the tit-

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for-tat sanctions began in March.

Moscow and Tehran have been negotiating a $1.5 billion oil-for-goods exchange, which could undermine international pressure on Iran to make a deal with the West. But overall, Moscow has continued to be a reasonably constructive part of the international coalition pressing Iran to roll back its nuclear program.

The Obama administration on Friday announced a four-month extension to the talks, which would constitute perhaps the last chance Iran has to land a deal. “This will give us a short amount of additional time to continue working to conclude a comprehensive agreement, which we believe is warranted by the progress we’ve made and the path forward we can envision,” Kerry said in a statement.

But if Putin decides that retaliating against the U.S. and ruining Obama’s foreign policy legacy is more important than sealing a pact with Iran, the whole thing could unravel.

The shooting down of MH17 has escalated the diplomatic war between Washington and Moscow and made that scenario more likely because it could result in more sanctions and legal action against the Russian government.

“Right now, as the U.S. should move legally against Russia, Russia will begin to see its overseas portfolios start to really become encumbered and therefore they might decide to be less helpful on Iran,” Sen. Mark Kirk told The Daily Beast. “Then, the big goose egg that the administration is going to get from Iran will more obviously be a zip.”

Kirk is part of a chorus of GOP senators calling for the administration to impose more sanctions on Russia in the wake of the MH17 disaster. That includes measures like the Russian Aggression Prevention Act, which would cut all senior Russian officials, their companies, and their supporters off from the world’s financial system; target any Russian entities owned by the Russian government or sanctioned individuals across the arms, defense, energy, financial services, metals, or mining sectors in Russia; and ban all Russian banks from the U.S. financial system.

The Obama administration Wednesday imposed limited sanctions on many key players in those sectors, saying that broader sectoral sanctions were still on the table.

“Once we realize that [top State Department negotiator] Wendy Sherman got squat in Geneva, I think the Republican leadership will be highly supportive of any legislation on Iran,” Kirk said, referring to the latest round of negotiations.

Lawmakers in both parties are also set to push for new sanctions on Iran this year to be passed into law during the four month extension but not put into force until negotiations fail outright. One Democratic lawmaker who met with Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday at the State Department told The Daily Beast that Kerry said he was open to that idea. The State Department press shop denied Kerry made such remarks.

“An extension is the only thing the Iranians need to complete their bomb work,” said Kirk. “The whole point of the sanctions was to make sure that time is not on the side of the Iranians.”

Even top Democrats in Congress are worried that the MH17 disaster and its effect on U.S.-Russian relations will harm the effort to strike a nuclear deal with Iran.

The incident was “a serious act of terror, and if there was Russian complicity in it, that makes it even worse,” said Elliott Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Considering that we are doing the P5+1 [world power negotiations with Iran] and Russia’s part of that, there are all kinds of intertwining complications involving that.”

Until now, Moscow has retaliated to U.S. financial pressure with sanctions of their own against U.S. officials, lawmakers, and even donors to President Obama who are linked to the gay advocacy community. Putin hasn’t always made the retaliatory sanctions public, but his government sought to respond proportionally and kept other issues out of the dispute.

“A few things that had gone on between the U.S. and Russia despite the sanctions have been the P5+1 talks, the effort to rid Syria of its chemical weapons, and the implantation of treaties like New START,” said Sam Charap, senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic and International Studies.

But Russian can’t punish American banks and energy firms the same way the U.S. punishes Russian entities. American businesses rarely depend on access to the Russian financial system and U.S. officials don’t have assets in Russia.

“If it’s true that the Russians are now diverging from the rest of the P5+1 in the Iran negotiations, that would be a clear sign that they have retaliated for the sanctions,” Charap said.

By cutting off leading Russian oil and gas firms from the American finance system, including Gazprombank and Rosneft, Washington is imposing some of the same sanctions on Russian that it has levied on Iranian entities. This incentivises Putin to seek energy deals with countries including Iran and China. Russia and China inked a $400 billion energy deal only last month, another Russian response to U.S, sanctions.

Also, Russian officials note the irony of American asking Russia to enforce sanctions on Iran’s oil sector while the U.S. goes after Russian oil interests. For the Kremlin, that’s seen as Washington putting Moscow and Tehran in the same boat, so they conclude Russia and Iran might as well work together to subvert what they see as unfair trade practices.

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Cupid Is As Cupid Does

Posted on April 29, 2014

http://conservativebyte.com/2014/04/cupid-cupid/#bOXRsQ7ZEGkDucJW.99

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Sanctions Bear Little

Posted on March 25, 2014

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/03/russian-deputy-pm-laughs-at-obamas-sanctions/

By Kirit Radia

@kiritradia
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Mar 17, 2014 3:09pm

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.

U.S. official have warned of additional sanctions for Russian action, hoping it will deter Russia from any further aggression towards Ukraine, but it didn’t appear to upset the often outspoke Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

gty dmitry rogozin kb 140317 16x9 608 Russian Deputy PM Laughs at Obamas Sanctions

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin is seen in this July 17, 2012 file photo during a meeting with Indian Minister for External Affairs, S.M. Krishna in New Delhi. Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images

Rogozin, a friend of actor Steven Seagal, took to Twitter to tweak Obama, tweeting he thinks “some prankster” came up with the sanctions list

In a later tweet addressed to “Comrade @BarackObama,” he asked, “what should do those who have neither accounts nor property abroad? Or U didn’t think about it?”

Another Russian on the sanctions list, Vladislav Surkov, also seemed unconcerned.

Surkov, a top Putin ideologue often called the Kremlin’s grey cardinal, reportedly told a Russian newspaper, “It’s a big honor for me. I don’t have accounts abroad. The only things that interest me in the U.S. are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock. I don’t need a visa to access their work. I lose nothing.”

Here’s who gets hit with the sanctions:

U.S. officials said that, among the sanctioned individuals were the “key ideologists and architects” of Russia’s Ukraine policy, while adding that some of the Russian officials were included in the list for their role in curbing “human rights and liberties” in Russia.

The sanctions freeze any assets under American jurisdiction and prevent American banks from doing business with the named individual, essentially freezing them out of the international banking system. The sanctions also impose a ban on their travel to the United States. Separately, but in coordination with the White House, the European Union announced sanctions today on 21 individuals that it plans to name later. U.S. officials told reporters that the American and European lists “overlapped” in some area, but declined to say how.

While some of the sanctioned officials are bold faced names, the White House move is unlikely to affect Russia’s decision making with regard to Crimea’s bid to join the Russian Federation. Russia’s stock market actually improved on the news that so few officials were included on the list. U.S. officials warned that, if Russia does go ahead with annexation of Crimea, additional penalties will follow, with more, harsher measures to come if Russia attempts to enter eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin aides

Vladislav Surkov – An aide to President Vladimir Putin, he was once considered one of Russia’s most powerful men. He has been called the Kremlin’s “gray cardinal” for his role as a power broker behind the scenes. He’s also credited the architect of Russia’s political system, with power concentrated in the presidency. In the past he was credited with shaping the ideology of the ruling United Russia party. He has also written rock music lyrics and is rumored to have authored a book.

Sergei Glazyev – An economic aide to Putin who oversaw relations with Ukraine. He frequently blasted the protest movement in Kiev and was outspoken in his criticism of American and European support for the protests.

Top government official

Dmitry Rogozin – An outspoken, hawkish Deputy Prime Minister, he’s known to have a close friendship with Hollywood actor Steven Seagal. As a member of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev’s government, Rogozin is responsible for the armed forces and arms industry.

Russian lawmakers

Elena Mizulina – A senior lawmaker, she is considered one of the Kremlin’s morality enforcers in the parliament. She is perhaps best known as the co-author of last year’s homosexual “propaganda” law which sparked outrage overseas. She also proposed a measure to give Ukrainians Russian passports.

Leonid Slutsky – A lawmaker in the lower house of Parliament. He is the chair of the Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration, and Relations with Compatriots. He was one of the Russian observers attending Sunday’s referendum in Crimea.

Andrei Klishas – A member of the upper house of Parliament, the Federation Council, who proposed retaliatory action in case of Western sanctions on Russia. He is chairman of the Federation Council Committee of Constitutional Law, Judicial, and Legal Affairs, and the Development of Civil Society.

Valentina Matviyenko – The head of the Federation Council, she is the most senior lawmaker on the sanctions list.

Crimean officials

Sergey Aksyonov – Once an obscure pro-Russian politician in Crimea, he has now been declared the prime minister.

Vladimir Konstantinov – The newly declared speaker of Crimea’s parliament.

Ukrainian officials

Viktor Medvedchuk – A pro-Russian politician, he is being sanctioned for having “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support” to impeached President Viktor Yanukovich. Ukraine’s opposition has accused him of orchestrating or aiding a crackdown on protesters and opposition.

Viktor Yanukovich – The ousted president of Ukraine. He was elected in 2010 but was chased from office by protests last month.

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Posts tagged ‘sanctions’

By: Jake Smith / February 08, 2024

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BY: CHUCK DEVORE | OCTOBER 20, 2023

Hamas and Hezbollah are the symptoms; Iran is the disease.

Optimal Use of U.S. Air Force and Navy

Iran’s Nuclear Program

Reagan-Era Lessons

Applying Force

Chuck DeVore is chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and a former California legislator, and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. He’s the author of “The Crisis of the House Never United—A Novel of Early America.”

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A.F. Branco Cartoon – Dirty Hairy-Legs

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Trump, you get no credit for so-called stopping the strike against Iran. Why was the unmanned drone in Iran’s airspace? Why the surveillance? Don’t provoke and then pretend innocence.

— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) June 23, 2019

President Trump announced on Monday that he was imposing new sanctions on Iran, stepping up a policy of pressuring the nation’s leaders and further squeezing the Iranian economy in retaliation for what the United States says are recent aggressive acts by Tehran.

The move came on top of actions taken by the administration this spring to cut off all revenues from Iranian oil exports, the lifeblood of the nation’s economy.

The new sanctions are aimed at preventing some top Iranian officials from using the international banking system or any financial vehicles set up by European nations or other countries.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Twitter that the “useless sanctioning” of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Zarif, who led Iran’s nuclear negotiations with world powers, “means the permanent closure of the doors of diplomacy.”

“Trump’s government is annihilating all of the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security,” said the spokesman, Abbas Mousavi. Source: WaPo

Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and has complied with restrictions to its atomic energy activities set out under the 2015 deal it negotiated with world powers, including the United States.

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Posted by GirlsJustWannaHaveGuns.com | August 7, 2017

Looks like Kimberly Jon-un woke up in an extra pissed off mood on Monday.

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Authored By Jordan Fabian – 02/03/17 10:27 AM EST

The U.S. slapped new sanctions on Iran on Friday after the Trump administration signaled it wanted to punish Tehran for its latest ballistic missile test.

The individuals and companies — based in Iran, China, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates — are banned from doing business with U.S. institutions or American citizens.

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By Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer

But above all, the goal was to shield the US-led global financial sector from Iran’s vast network of financial criminals and their illegal transactions.

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Flexing Their Muscle

Posted on August 8, 2014

Read more at http://conservativebyte.com/2014/08/flexing-muscle/#5c6EVdytpTILL88l.99

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Europe has acquiesced to Washington’s drive to war with Russia, a war that is likely to be the final war for humanity

by Paul Craig Roberts | Infowars.com | August 7, 2014

Washington’s aggressive moves against Russia will not stop until Putin realizes that he, not Washington, holds the cards, and plays them.

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Cupid Is As Cupid Does

Posted on April 29, 2014

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Sanctions Bear Little

Posted on March 25, 2014

Read more at http://conservativebyte.com/2014/03/sanctions-bear-little/#hqhcR2CxabEaCiMm.99

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By Kirit Radia

Here’s who gets hit with the sanctions:

Kremlin aides

Top government official

Russian lawmakers

Crimean officials

Ukrainian officials

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“Trump’s government is annihilating all of the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security,” said the spokesman, Abbas Mousavi.
Source: WaPo