Obama waters down sanctions threat once again

[Reality Check]

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President Obama, speaking at a news conference in Malaysia on Sunday, ruled out any sectoral sanctions being imposed on Russia by anyone. Neither the U.S. nor any European country will impose sectoral sanctions. After threatening, tough, sectoral sanctions for weeks, this is one more case of a red line being drawn and then abandoned.

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Q Mr. President, on the situation in Ukraine and the Russian sanctions that I know the United States and others may be announcing on Monday -- I guess my question is why wait on sectoral sanctions, as far as the United States is concerned? Why not do that on your own, now and sooner, rather than wait for the Europeans to get on board on this? Because aren’t you concerned that Putin is essentially using the European angst over tougher sanctions as a way to slow-walk things and buy more time and space for himself?

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PRESIDENT OBAMA: Okay, first, on Ukraine, in consultation with our European partners we’ve determined that because Russia has failed to follow through on its side of the accord that had been hammered out in Geneva, it was important for us to take further steps, sending a message to Russia that the kind of destabilizing activities that are taking place in the east and the south of Ukraine had to stop.

There was a glimmer of hope after the Geneva accords that Ukraine would follow through on its commitments to enter into a dialogue around constitutional reforms, that it would do everything it needed to do to disarm irregular forces and militias, and it would offer amnesty to those who willingly laid down arms and pulled out of the buildings. They’ve been doing that. Russia has not lifted a finger to help. In fact, there’s strong evidence that they have been encouraging the kinds of activities that have been taking place in eastern and southern Ukraine.

And so, collectively, us and the Europeans have said that so long as Russia continues down a path of provocation rather than trying to resolve this issue peacefully and deescalating, there are going to be consequences and those consequences will continue to grow.

Now, the notion that for us to go forward with sectoral sanctions on our own without the Europeans would be the most effective deterrent to Mr. Putin I think is factually wrong. We’re going to be in a stronger position to deter Mr. Putin when he sees that the world is unified and the United States and Europe is unified, rather than this is just a U.S.-Russian conflict.

And, in fact, you notice that oftentimes they’re really interested in portraying this through this old Cold War prism, when, in fact, that’s not what the issue is here. The issue is respecting basic international norms of sovereignty and territorial integrity. The issue is can the Ukrainians make their own decisions about how they govern themselves and who they have international relations with. That’s our only interest in this whole process.

And so it’s important for us to make sure that we are part of an international coalition sending that message and that Russia is isolated in its actions, rather than falling into the trap of interpreting this as the United States is trying to pull Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit, circa 1950. Because that’s not what this is about. And the Europeans have a larger stake in this than anyone.

Now, as I said I think at the last press conference, there are going to be differences even within Europe, in part because of the nature of the economic relationships that they’ve got. And we’ve got to work through those in a systematic way. If, in fact, we need to move forward with sectoral sanctions, then it’s going to be important that we know exactly what we’re prepared to do and sustain over the long haul; our European partners know what they’re willing and able to do as well. And the more we are unified, the more effective it’s going to be.

If we, for example, say we’re not going to allow certain arms sales to Russia -- just to take an example -- but every European defense contractor backfills what we do, then it’s not very effective. It’s going to be more effective if everybody signs on and everybody is committed.

Q But why only have --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I didn’t say “only,” “never,” “when.” I said this is our strategy. And I want to emphasize every time I address this question there is a diplomatic path to resolving this issue. The Geneva statement pointed towards how we could resolve this statement. What it asks of the Russians is hardly onerous: Make a public statement that those militias need to lay down their arms and exit those buildings; participate with international observers and monitors, rather than stand by while they’re being bullied and, in some cases, detained by these thugs; negotiate with the Ukrainian government and engage in some confidence-building measures. These aren’t heavy lifts if the Russians are sincere in wanting to resolve this problem. So far we haven’t seen that, but we’re going to keep on raising the consequences of Russia rejecting that path towards diplomacy.
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http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off ... b-malaysia
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