19:54
21.3.2014
Who has the authority to impose sanctions? What role does the WTO play? Why hasn't Russian President Vladimir Putin been sanctioned?
RFE/RL's Rob Coalson explains some of the basics of international sanctions in his piece How The International Sanctions Game Is Played.
RFE/RL's Rob Coalson explains some of the basics of international sanctions in his piece How The International Sanctions Game Is Played.
20:12
21.3.2014
Breaking news:
The Organization for Security and Cooperation In Europe (OSCE) has agreed that up to 500 OSCE civilian observers will be deployed to Ukraine for six months. OSCE member nations, including Russia, agreed to the move at a meeting Friday evening in Vienna. Russia had blocked earlier efforts by the OSCE to deploy observers. The mandate does not permit the observers to deploy to Crimea, which Russia annexed this week in the face of opposition from Western states, who say they still consider Crimea part of Ukraine. The mandate says the monitors will initially deploy to Kherson, Odesa, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Chernivtsi, and Luhansk, with a head office in Kyiv. The mandate says the mission will consist initially of 100 monitors, but could be expanded to 500 depending on developments.
21:00
21.3.2014
In this week's "Power Vertical Podcast," host Brian Whitmore and his guests discuss whether Russia's annexation of Crimea won't turn out to be pivotal and historic in ways Russian President Vladimir Putin did not intend. In resetting Russia's domestic political agenda with a wave of anti-Western nationalism, he may have also unleashed forces he may not be able to control.
LISTEN IN: Tactical Victory. Strategic Defeat?
LISTEN IN: Tactical Victory. Strategic Defeat?
21:58
21.3.2014
Putin's new media boss on the junket he'd rather forget:
Meetings with security officials. Dinner paid for by the State Department. Jazz hands. Dmitry Kiselev in DC: http://t.co/nZlP7WlrEA
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 21, 2014
22:41
21.3.2014
Barring any breaking news, this concludes our live blogging for March 21.
10:19
22.3.2014
From the agencies, via our news desk:
Russia says European Union sanctions imposed on 12 Russians and Ukrainians on Friday over the Crimean crisis were "divorced from reality." Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Saturday that Russia reserves the right answer reciprocally. In a separate statement, the ministry said Moscow hopes the decision to send to Ukraine a monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will help resolve the "internal Ukrainian crisis" and stop “nationalist banditry.” It added that the "mission's mandate reflects the new political and legal realities and does not extend to Crimea and Sevastopol, which have become part of Russia." The OSCE had said the observer team will gather information over six months on the security situation "throughout” Ukraine.
10:30
22.3.2014
Crimea's Tatars continue to resist Russia's takeover of the peninsula:
Pretty bold statement from Refat Chubarov,Crimea Tatar nation'll convene on Kurultai to decide abt autonomy in Crimea http://t.co/dF8Lpsx99W
— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) March 22, 2014
11:10
22.3.2014
Interesting video looks at Putin's big speech, in Russian: https://t.co/o9xJUdtupe
— Robert Coalson (@CoalsonR) March 22, 2014
11:11
22.3.2014
Europe's "soft power" continues to rumble on, just possibly.
South Stream pipeline is now "dead." Europe writing plan to break dependence on Russian energy: http://t.co/6eAeL4YZhv
— Robert Coalson (@CoalsonR) March 22, 2014
11:23
22.3.2014
Ukrainian soldiers still in Crimea fear they may die there:
"Can you imagine? People like these talking about international law?” Sad report from Belbek by @KimSengupta07 http://t.co/Khz9WlXxno
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 22, 2014