Here is some info on sanctions decelopments, as reported by our news desk:
Russia’s Foreign Minister said on July 19 that it would retaliate against newly imposed U.S. sanctions on Russian firms and citizens by imposing visa restrictions on a similar number of U.S. citizens.
The list of U.S. citizens that Moscow is barring from entering Russia includes the chief wardens of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay detention centers in Iraq and Cuba.
Moscow also put U.S. congressman James Moran on the Kremlin’s banned list, saying the move was retaliation for the inclusion of Russian State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov on the U.S blacklist.
U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this week announced expanded sanctions against Russia over its activities in Ukraine.
The move came before a Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17.
(Reuters, AP, AFP, Interfax, and ITAR-TASS)
There's been some tough talk coming from Germany, according to this item from RFE/RL's news desk:
Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Moscow is facing its last opportunity to prove that it is serious about peace in Ukraine, following the downing of a Malaysian airliner by a suspected Russian missile system in eastern Ukraine.
Steinmeier made the remarks to the "Bild am Sonntag" newspaper today after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he must use his influence over pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine.
Both Steinmeier and Merkel say Russia has not done enough to stop rebel fighters in eastern Ukraine or shipments of weapons and fighters from Russia into Ukraine.
Merkel and Putin agreed that diplomats from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should meet directly with separatists, Ukrainian officials, and Russian diplomats to try to reach a truce in Ukraine.
(Reuters, AP, and AFP)
#MH17 rumble of air strikes in distance. War goes on
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) July 19, 2014
#MH17 1/2 OSCE leaving scene. Said they'd been given more access than yday
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) July 19, 2014
#MH17 but it was all v chaotic. Hard to know what was achieved.Will learn more later from briefing
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) July 19, 2014
#MH17 1/2 what we know for sure:2 days after crash site controlled by gunmen who make their own law.
— Fergal Keane (@fergalkeane47) July 19, 2014
There's some tough talk emanating from Germany, according to this item from RFE/RL's news desk:
Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Moscow is facing its last opportunity to prove that it is serious about peace in Ukraine, following the downing of a Malaysian airliner by a suspected Russian missile system in eastern Ukraine.
Steinmeier made the remarks to the "Bild am Sonntag" newspaper today after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he must use his influence over pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine.
Both Steinmeier and Merkel say Russia has not done enough to stop rebel fighters in eastern Ukraine or shipments of weapons and fighters from Russia into Ukraine.
Merkel and Putin agreed that diplomats from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should meet directly with separatists, Ukrainian officials, and Russian diplomats to try to reach a truce in Ukraine.
(Reuters, AP, and AFP)
RT also has column saying MH17 could have been shot down by NATO as an "early test of loyalties by the West's power elite of Philip Hammond"
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) July 19, 2014
Here it is, in all its sick glory: http://t.co/PI4Y19Atrg
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) July 19, 2014
It seems the OSCE observers are still being denied full access to the MH17 crash site (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Armed separatists in eastern Ukraine have for a second day prevented international inspectors from reaching the wreckage of the Malaysian airliner that was shot down on July 17, killing all 298 people.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said its team of monitors was only allowed to visit a part of the field strewn with debris from the airliner.
Separatists on July 18 blocked the inspectors from visiting the crash site.
President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement that he would "not tolerate interference" with the work of international investigators.
Earlier on July 19, Ukraine's government accused separatists of trying to destroy evidence of an international crime "with the help of Russia."
Kyiv also said separatists moved 38 bodies to a morgue in Donetsk.
A rebel commander told the OSCE team on July 19 that separatists did not touch evidence and had not found the plane’s ‘black box’ flight data recordings.
(Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)
Malaysia Airlines releases the #MH17 manifest listing the 298 passengers killed. http://t.co/l8sX0jiZOy
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) July 19, 2014
Russia, caught red-handed RT @AntDeRosa: Track Wikipedia edits made by Russian government IPs: @RuGovEdits
— Maxim Eristavi (@MaximEristavi) July 19, 2014
If nothing else, #MH17 proves that there are no more far away countries of which we know little. Everything is connected. Europe is small.
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) July 17, 2014
Bodies have been collected but then just left by side of road - v hot here #MH17 pic.twitter.com/LeuQzRf0YY
— Will Vernon (@BBCWillVernon) July 19, 2014