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US Expands Illegal Sanctions on Russia |
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9-1-16 |
| Security Council members alone may impose sanctions on countries, not
individual nations unilaterally or together with others against states they
wish to harm economically, politically and/or militarily. US sanctions on Russia are illegal. So are EU ones and what other countries imposed because of heavy pressure from Washington. On Wednesday, America announced new sanctions on Russian companies and individuals, heightening bilateral hostility instead of curbing it. More on this below. On Thursday, Sergey Lavrov addressed the deplorable state of US/Russia relations, saying Moscow’s foreign policy is being adjusted accordingly. Business as usual with America, NATO and Europe is impossible, he explained. “Political commitments (on European security) have been grossly violated and continue to be violated, and our proposals to translate these commitments from political declarations into the category of legally binding ones have been rejected outright,” he added. Moscow is prepared to restore normalized relations with the West, “but only on the basis of equality, without any attempts to transform these relations into a one-way traffic.” Hillary-led US neocons are using Russia as a convenient punching bag during Washington’s political season. Russia is a sovereign independent state, Lavrov stressed. It rejects efforts by any nation to treat it any other way. Washington prefers hostile to normalized relations - new sanctions the latest example, imposed on Russian companies and dozens of individuals involved in building the Kerch Strait bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland. Originally jointly planned with Ukraine’s Yanukovych government in 2010, US-installed putschists withdrew from the project in 2014. Moscow intends completing it on its own - a span of nearly 12 miles for road and rail traffic across the Kerch Strait, linking the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Sanctions have nothing to do with US allegations of Russia acting illegally against Ukraine. It’s not. They’re solely for geopolitical reasons, exacerbating uneasy bilateral relations. Moscow intends responding appropriately, saying “(t)he expansion of sanctions list announced by Washington on September 2 which includes Russian companies and organizations, as well as several legal entities with Russian participation outside of our country, is not just another demonstration of US administration’s inability to appropriately assess the situation in Ukraine.” “This is a reflection of a mindset rooted in the US ruling circles set on conscious and consistent destruction of basis for normalizing Russian-American relations.” US responsibility for crisis conditions in Ukraine “provoked and fanned from across the ocean is used by the US administration as a pretext for imposing on us the unacceptable ‘behavior model.’ “ Additional illegal sanctions also “will be used against us in the framework of American legislation on Iran, Syria and North Korea.” They’re “another element in a whole series of hostile actions made by the US toward Russia lately in different spheres, including military, economic and visa aspects.” “Washington’s unacceptable rhetoric is overboard. Such a reckless course arouses growing concern even among US allies. It can result in serious costs for international stability and will undoubtedly hit back at American interests.” Longstanding US plans call for regime change in Russia. Increasingly hostile acts seem headed inexorably toward direct confrontation - the unthinkable prospect of war between the world’s two dominant nuclear powers. A neocon-infested Hillary administration succeeding Obama, militantly hostile to Russia, makes US launched conflict far more likely - why it’s crucial to defeat her in November. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. |
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