প্রকাশ: 01/02/2022
The United States and Britain are prepared to punish Russian
elites close to President Vladimir Putin with asset freezes and travel bans if
Russia enters Ukraine, Washington and London said on Monday as tensions also
spilled over at the United Nations.
Britain urged Putin to "step back from the brink"
after the Russian build-up of troops near Ukraine stoked fears of war, and
warned any incursion would trigger sanctions against companies and people close
to the Kremlin.
"The individuals we have identified are in or near the
inner circles of the Kremlin and play a role in government decision making or
are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin's destabilizing behavior," White
House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said planned legislation
will give London new powers to target companies linked to the Russian state.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the British
warning "very disturbing," saying it made Britain less attractive to
investors and would hurt British companies.
"An attack by a given country on Russian business
implies retaliatory measures, and these measures will be formulated based on
our interests if necessary," Peskov said.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, London has
become the haven of choice for a river of money from Russia and other former
Soviet republics. Transparency advocates have long called on Britain to be
tougher about illicit financial flows.
PUBLIC FACE-OFF
Tensions between Russia and the United States were on
display at the United Nations Security Council on Monday where the
U.S.-requested meeting on Moscow's troop build-up allowed for a public face-off
over the crisis.
Russia's U.N. ambassador said there was "no proof"
Moscow was planning military action and that Russia had never confirmed the
West's assertion that it had amassed 100,000 troops near its neighbor.
Vassily Nebenzia said U.S. talk of war was
"provocative," that Russia frequently deployed troops in its own
territory, and that Ukraine's crisis was a domestic issue.
"The provocations from Russia, not from us or other
members of this council," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda
Thomas-Greenfield said.
China urged all parties to not aggravate the situation and
said it did not view Russia's troops near the border as a threat.
Although Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014
and backs pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine,
denies planning further incursion, it is demanding sweeping security guarantees
including a promise NATO never admit Ukraine.
It sent a follow-up to a written proposal made by the United
States last week, according to the State Department. Washington did not comment
on Monday on the content of the response, saying "it would be unproductive
to negotiate in public."
Meanwhile, leaders are continuing their diplomatic push with
phone calls and meetings to try to defuse the situation.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set travel to
Ukraine on Tuesday to meet with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
On a call between French President Emmanuel Macron and
Putin, the pair said they wanted to maintain a dialogue on implementing the
Minsk agreements regarding Donbass, a region of eastern Ukraine where Moscow
has backed separatist fighters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to speak
by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, a State
Department spokesperson said.
RUSSIAN MONEY ABROAD
Opponents of Putin have long urged the West to clamp down on
Russian money, though oligarchs and Russian officials continue to flaunt wealth
at Europe's most luxurious destinations.
"Putin's cronies will no longer be able to use their
spouses or other family members as proxies to evade sanctions," said a
senior Biden administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Sanctions would cut them off from the international
financial system and ensure that they and their family members will no longer
able to enjoy the perks of parking their money in the West and attending elite
Western universities."
Britain has already imposed sanctions on about 180 people
and 48 entities since Russia annexed Crimea, including six people it says are
close to Putin. The sanctions allow Britain to bar people from entering and to
freeze their assets.
The European Union, many of whose members are in NATO, has
also threatened "strong political consequences and massive economic
costs" for Russia over any new incursion into Ukraine.
Some NATO countries, including the United States and
Britain, have sent arms to Ukraine, although they have ruled out sending troops
there to fight.
Poland said it had offered neighboring Ukraine tens of
thousands of munitions, and was awaiting a reply. The White House on Monday
accused Russia of surging troops into Belarus, which is hosting Russian drills
and borders both Poland and Ukraine.
Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies weakens the
West's hand, and the United States has asked top gas producer Qatar and other
major exporters to study whether they can supply more to Europe.
U.S. President Joe Biden met with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani on Monday at the Oval Office and said he planned to
designate the Middle Eastern nation a major non-NATO ally.
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