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EU adopts sanctions against Russia

Moscow fights back, announces tit-for-tat measures over Ukraine crisis

AFP, Brussels, Moscow
The European Union formally adopted broad economic sanctions against Russia yesterday, aiming to make it pay a price over the Ukraine crisis in the hope Moscow will reverse course.
A defiant Russia said Wednesday that Western sanctions over Ukraine would backfire on the
United States and lead to energy price hikes in Europe after Brussels and Washington unveiled the toughest punitive measures against Moscow since the Cold War.
Russia's response came as the Ukrainian military pushed on with its offensive against pro-Russian rebels in the east, retaking the town of Avdiyivka,
only a dozen kilometres (eight miles) from the main rebel city of Donetsk.
The Russian foreign ministry warned the United States it was shooting itself in the foot and said it was punishing the Kremlin for "independent policies that Washington finds inconvenient"
Moscow also warned that European consumers would bear the brunt of sanctions targeting Russia's vital energy, arms and finance sectors.
"This is a thoughtless, irresponsible step. It will inevitably lead to an increase in prices on the European energy market," the foreign ministry said.
The new measures, finally agreed earlier this week after months of hesitation, target Russia's banking, defence and energy sectors in view of its "actions destabilising the situation in eastern Ukraine," a statement said.
A first step limits access by Russian state-owned banks to Europe's financial markets, chief among them London, which will increase their cost of doing business and hinder their contribution to the economy.
EU nationals and companies will no longer be allowed to buy or sell new bonds, stocks or other debt instruments with a maturity of more than 90 days issued by such banks, the statement said.
But Russian banks put on a brave face, saying their operations would not be affected and that they would seek
funding outside the United States and Europe.
Sales of arms and dual-use technology are banned, along with sensitive technologies in the oil sector but not gas, where Russia supplies about a third of the EU's needs.
Analysts say the oil sector ban could really hurt in time because Russia relies heavily on advanced Western drilling technology, especially for the development of new fields in extreme environments such as the Arctic.
"The measures will apply to new contracts," the statement said, adding that the legal texts would be published in the EU Official Journal later yesterday and come into effect today.
Later Wednesday the European Union piled on asset freezes and travel bans against eight individuals including two close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin who are leading shareholders in Rossiya Bank, which caters to senior Russian officials.
And the Group of Seven major developed economies warned that Russia faces still tougher sanctions if it does not change course.
"Russia still has the opportunity to choose the path of de-escalation," the G7 powers said in a joint statement released by the White House.
"If it does not do so, however, we remain ready to further intensify the costs of its adverse actions."
Russia provided few details of possible retaliation but earlier Wednesday its agricultural watchdog banned the
import of all fruit and vegetables from EU member Poland, one of the staunchest supporters of Kiev's pro-Western course.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was struggling to understand the West's logic, insisting Russia was doing everything to help mediate talks between Ukrainian authorities and Moscow-backed rebels.
"What exactly are our partners seeking?" he said on a visit to Tajikistan.
Some EU diplomats and Russia experts expressed concern that tighter sanctions may in fact embolden Putin, convincing him that he no longer has anything to lose by further escalating the Ukraine conflict.
“The confrontation will increase abruptly. Putin has been practically driven into a corner, and this man does not make concessions under pressure," Nikolai Petrov of the Higher School of Economics told AFP.
Fuelling the concern, NATO's top commander, General Philip Breedlove, said Wednesday that Russia had boosted the number of troops along the border with Ukraine to "well over 12,000" and the number was on the rise.
In addition, Russian weaponry contingents in the crisis area include “every kind of weapon, supplies, man portable weapons, field weapons, armoured vehicles, all of the weapons, " he said on a visit to Kosovo.
The troop presence had dropped to fewer than 1,000 in June.