US, allies seek to isolate Russia; Moscow shrugs

By: 11 years ago

President Barack Obama participates in a G7 Leaders meeting at Catshuis, the official residence of the Dutch Prime Minister, in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, March 24, 2014. Seated clockwise from Obama are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron. AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — As the United States redoubled efforts to pressure Russia out of its aggressive pose, the Russian annexation of Crimea began to take root and Moscow shrugged off President Barack Obama’s drive to isolate Vladimir Putin’s government.

The U.S. and some of its closest allies cut Russia out indefinitely from a major coalition of leading industrial nations and canceled a summer summit Russia was to host in its Olympic village of Sochi. Obama also sought to win backing from other foreign leaders in hopes of ostracizing or even shaming Putin into reversing his acquisition of Crimea and backing away from any designs he might have on other Eastern Europe territory.

In a strongly worded joint statement, the United States, France, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan denounced a referendum in Crimea to secede from Ukraine and Russia’s ensuing annexation. In so doing, the seven leaders also effectively excluded Russia from what had been a two-decade-old coalition known as the Group of Eight.

“This clear violation of international law is a serious challenge to the rule of law around the world and should be a concern for all nations,” the declaration said.

Still, Monday’s international gestures in Amsterdam and in The Hague got only a dismissive reaction from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“The G-8 is an informal club,” he said. “It has no membership tickets, and it can’t purge anyone by definition.”

And in the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine ordered its troops to pull back from the disputed territory, a clear signal that at least for now the fledgling Ukrainian government in Kiev was ceding to Russia’s aggressive tactics.

The showdown between Russia and the West has evoked old Cold War tensions and was sure to dominate questions for Obama on Tuesday when he holds a joint news conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. It will be Obama’s first news conference since Russia made a move on Crimea.

The opportunity for Obama to seek international support came as leaders from around the world already had converged in the Netherlands for a nuclear security summit, initially the featured event at the start of Obama’s weeklong, four-country trip.

But Ukraine has so far dominated Obama’s side discussions with world leaders and the G-7 members. Even Russia’s Lavrov, in The Hague for the nuclear summit, met on the sidelines with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Speaking earlier Monday, with Rutte at his side, Obama called Russia’s annexation of the peninsula on the Black Sea a “flagrant breach of international law and we condemn its actions in the strongest possible terms.”

Obama also raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping. White House aides later commended the Chinese for refusing to side with Russia, a longtime ally, on a U.N Security Council vote last week declaring the secession vote illegal. Russia, a Security Council permanent member, voted against it, while China abstained.

On Tuesday, Obama planned additional meetings on the security summit sidelines: a sit-down with Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi, the richest emirate in the United Arab Emirates federation, and a joint meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Both those meetings are likely to focus less on Ukraine and more on regional tensions in the Middle East and in Northern Asia. The visit with the Abu Dhabi crown prince will also serve as precursor to Obama’s on Friday visit to Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with King Abdullah to address Arab anxieties over the Syrian civil war and U.S. nuclear talks with Iran, a Saudi Arabia rival in the region.

The meeting with Park and Abe brings together two U.S. Asian allies who have been quarreling over recent Abe gestures that have rekindled memories of Japan’s aggression in World War II. It will be the first meeting between the two Asian leaders since they took office more than a year ago.

The G-7 approach to Russia was two-pronged: halt further expansionist moves by Putin and seek to undo the Russian takeover of Crimea. The U.S. and the EU already have levied economic sanctions against highly-placed individuals around Putin as a response to the Crimea annexation, without any success. The G-7 also vowed to launch coordinated sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy if Putin presses into areas of southern and eastern Ukraine.

Among the sectors that could be targeted are Russia’s robust energy industry, as well as its banking and defense industries. Obama has already signed an executive order that would allow him to take those steps unilaterally.

U.S. officials said Obama won support for those sanctions from the Europeans despite fears they could backfire on their own economies. Russia is one of the European Union’s largest trading partners and energy suppliers.

Despite Monday’s Russian bluster and the Ukrainian troop withdrawal, U.S. and other Western officials took note of hopeful signs, including Lavrov’s own meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, the highest-level encounter between the two nations since Russia moved forces into Crimea nearly a month ago.