(Vatican Radio) The United States has announced further sanctions against Russia,
targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief of staff and 19 other individuals
as well as a Russian Bank, while the European Union planned similar steps Thursday.
The moves are in protest against attempts by Russia to annex Ukraine's Crimean
Peninsula, Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, overwhelmingly approved
a controversial treaty on Thursday.
Listen to regional Correspondent Stefan
Bos' report...
The United
States has announced further sanctions on Russian officials and a Russian bank, while
the European Union planned similar steps Thursday to protest attempts by Russia to
annex Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
They prepared their actions whole Russian
legislators began ratifying a treaty absorbing Crimea into the Russian Federation.
US President Barack Obama told reporters the sanctions would targeting
President Vladimir Putin's chief of staff and 19 other individuals as well as a Russian
Russian Bank Rossiya that provides them support.
He said he signed an executive
order that would allow the U.S. to penalize key sectors of the Russian economy, including
its huge energy business.
Officials said Obama could act on that authority
if Russian forces press into other areas of Ukraine. Moscow said it would retaliate.
"The
world is watching with grave concern as Russia has positioned its military in a way
that could lead to further incursions into southern and eastern Ukraine," Obama explained.
RUSSIAN
PARLIAMENT
Obama spoke shortly after Russian legislators approved a treaty
signed by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to annex Crimea from Ukraine.
Thursday's
vote took the Black Sea peninsula a step closer to joining the Russian Federation,
though officials made clear that the integration process will take some nine-months.
European
Union leaders were also expected to take further steps against Russia on Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said measures would include suspending all G-8 summit
meetings with Russia, and expanding a freeze of bank accounts and travel bans of people
linked to the crisis.
Yet, Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly
Churkin has defended his country’s actions in Crimea, saying voters had chosen to
join Russia in a referendum held on Sunday.
'CRIMEA FROM RUSSIA'
He
explained that "the coming together of Crimean and Russian people" is something they
had been waiting "for 60 years" as in 1954 Crimea was given to Ukraine by than Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev. He said that "through a democratic referendum the Crimean
people realised their right to self-determination, which is enshrined in all United
Nations charters and international acts.”
However NATO Secretary General
Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested that Sunday's vote was held in an intimidating atmosphere
thousands of Russian forces control the region.
“The annexation of Crimea
through a so-called referendum held at gunpoint is illegal and illegitimate and it
undermines all efforts to find a peaceful solution,” he said.
And there
was no sign of peace Thursday, after Russian forces took control key Ukrainian naval
bases and other sites, forcing Ukrainian troops to leave Crimea.