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US President Barack Obama has announced additional sanctions on senior officials in the Russian government in response to Moscow’s seizure of the Crimea region from Ukraine. The US president, speaking at the White House yesterday, also said Russia’s threats to southern and eastern Ukraine posed a serious risk of escalation of the crisis in the region.
Obama also said that the recent referendum in Ukraine’s Crimea was illegal.
The president’s remarks came after the Russian parliament’s lower house gave its near-unanimous approval to the country’s annexation of Crimea, ignoring threats of more sanctions.
The Kremlin-controlled Duma voted 445-1 yesterday to make Crimea a part of Russia following a quick discussion in which members assailed the Ukrainian authorities.
The vote came as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Moscow for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. “I’m deeply concerned about the current situation,” Ban said at the start of the talks.
The incorporation of Crimea into Russia needs to be rubber-stamped by the upper house and receive a final endorsement by Putin, formalities expected to be completed by the end of the week.
During yesterday’s debate, senior politicians spoke of the need to protect Russian speakers elsewhere in Ukraine from radical Ukrainian nationalists, statements that could fuel fears of Russian invasion.
“They don’t understand in Washington that entire territories will flee as Crimea did if such outrage continues,” said Vladimir Vasilyev, the leader of the dominant United Russia faction.
Though Putin, who signed the treaty for Crimea to join Russia earlier this week, said he is not seeking a division of Ukraine, he insists the country can “use all means” to protect Russian speakers.
He also made his view clear that he sees Ukraine as an artificial state carved up by the Soviet government to include some of Russia’s historic lands.
Russia has been arguing for broad autonomy for Ukraine’s regions that would turn the nation into a federation, and guarantees of Ukraine’s neutral status to prevent its membership in Nato.
Yesterday’s Duma vote follows Crimea’s referendum on Sunday, which was held just two weeks after Russian forces effectively took over the strategic Black Sea peninsula.
The United States and the European Union have responded by slapping some limited sanctions on Russia.
Ilya Ponomarev, an opposition lawmaker who was the only Duma member who voted against the move, said in his blog that Russia behaved like a “banal aggressor” and made a grave mistake by annexing Crimea.
Meanwhile, Ban met Putin as Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to approve a treaty the Russian leader signed on Tuesday to absorb the Ukrainian region of Crimea into Russia, a move that has caused the biggest East-West confrontation since the Cold War.
“I am deeply concerned about the current situation involving Ukraine and also Russia,” Ban said after the two sat down for talks in the Kremlin.
Ukraine and Western governments say Russia has illegally seized control of Crimea from Kiev.
Russia denies this, saying Crimea voted for union with Russia in a referendum, although the West regards the referendum as illegitimate.
Putin said Russia “constantly and consistently supports the central role of the United Nations in global affairs”.
“And we highly value your efforts, Mr Secretary General, in resolving the possibly existing crises and those that existed before on the planet — a positive and very efficient role,” Putin said. He did not mention Ukraine in the portion of the meeting open to journalists.
Ban met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier yesterday.
He will travel to Kiev today on a trip the United Nations said was “part of [his] diplomatic efforts to encourage all parties to resolve the current crisis peacefully”. — Al Jazeera
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