U.S. and EU impose sanctions as Crimea turns to Moscow

Aren't the Chinese imposing any sanctions?

China and Soviet Union were global partners in spreading their form of "governing". Russia is still a LARGE fragment of USSR. China would do the same if it were fragmented and had a slight opportunity t reunite it's "empire".

the u.s. has been outmaneuvered. no way russia was ever going to let their only black sea naval base go over to the west. unless west can prove that the crimea vote was somehow illegal or suppressed, what is the basis of their claim for sanctions? although i have to say that numbers are a bit fishy, when have you ever heard of 95.5% of an 83.1% turnout makes me wonder what prison the other 20% of the population are being held in. hey, but u.s. should thank russia cause they just offered them a very neat way to avoid their obligation to defend the ukraine. personally, the u.s. should just have told the ukraine. sorry we can't defend you so we'll give you your nuclear weapons back! :D

Ireland, Korea, Vietnam, Yemen. The west normally supports the division of nations, Why not this time ?, especially considering the vast majority of Crimeans wish to secede.

The US did not impose sanctions on Russia or Putin. There have been no consequences despite Obama's Crimeria vote red-line. Harassing a few of Putin's cronies is a joke. Obama does not believe in sanctioning other countries (except maybe going after Israel). The presidents foreign policy seems to consist solely of self humiliation. Putin and other Russian officials have been going to social media taunting Obama. It's an embarrassing spectacle to watch.

Simply, the sanctions impose by U.S. and E.U are so weak in proportion of this bully act by Putin. Even Russians are mocking at comrade Obama on twitter. The West need to be strong and sanction Putin himself by targeting the banking and economic sectors of Russia. Putin knows about power more than economics, so let him tastes it.

The EU would not go along with strong sanctions, especially ones that can't be rolled back. Originally the list of names to be sanctioned had around a hundred names, but European nations couldn't agree on a lot of them, so to prevent further delay, they only left the names they could all agree about. Without EU support, there can be no strong sanctions since Russia does most of its business with Europe.

Maybe Obama just wants to gum Putin until he says uncle. The EU knows if any sanctions with teeth were imposed only the EU would suffer in return.

Obama had to think what to do with this situation, Harry Reid cancelled all discussion in DC to attend Jackie Gaugan's funeral (died 93 years old), He made speech on Gaugan and who is who in our area spoke. Former Governors, billionaires and working class people all mixed and attended, He will help Obama in a few days later.

such a shame. lebensraum all over again, the same rational being given as in the past for appeasement. so Crimea today, eastern Ukraine tomorrow

then the rest will fall,

in the meantime China will this as further evidence that the USA will not support Taiwan, Japan , Korea or any state in Asia. China will start increasing pressure on the US fleet to force it out.

and what will Obama do then?

What will the eu do If Putin doubles the price of gas as a sanction back. And where are they going to borrow the billions needed to prop up the bankrupt bottle throwers now in charge in Ukraine, their banks are broke from lending to their own bozo states in Greece etc. And how many Russian sanctionees were planning a trip to Miami anyway? Will St Barts turn away their money? Putin must be thrilled to have most of Ukraine off the client list.

The people of Crimea chose to be part of Russia under a referendum-the west then applies sanctions?

Democracy is well and truly dead.......

'Sanctions' from the EU? I'm sure Putin is happier being full of gas than hot air.

Foolish and hypocritical Western government should stay out of this. Again, our elected leaders are embarrassing us.

What does the Chinese government have to say about this?

If Obama really wanted to make an impact, he would have deployed armor units to the frontline NATO nations. That would have sent a message to Putin. We have a weak president who　would rather buy pink sweaters in NYC than be the leader of the free world.

RR

If Obama really wanted to make an impact, he would have deployed armor units to the frontline NATO nations.

Whose armor units? Americans? Good luck with that.

@fds

"when have you ever heard of 95.5% of an 83.1% turnout "

People in the West really have no knowledge of the life of ethnic Russians in Ukraine (or in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, for that matter).

What happened in Ukraine after 1991 was forced Ukrainization of the country, and especially its Russian-speaking population. You had to learn the new language, and Russian was pretty much banned from official use. Culturally, too, everything to do with the Russian culture was being suppressed and spat on. That doesn't bode well for a country to ignore close to 60% of its population (native Russian-speakers, even if not ethnically Russian).

Naturally, Russian-speakers across the Ukraine felt their rights and cultural identity threatened. And now after what has been happening in western Ukraine, with all the beatings and shootings and lynchings of pro-Russian people, with the Neo-Nazis coming to power in Kiev and controlling the parliament there, the Crimean population simply felt that things have gone too far and unless they did something right here and right now, they'd be in fear of their lives in months to come.

Not at all surprising.

If Obama really wanted to make an impact, he would have deployed armor units to the frontline NATO nations

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Comment by USA international situation expert: Never fight against Russia which destroyed Nazi. Too much money and Manpowers are already wasted. Then later, military men in Japan know how to use chop sticks but not fighting against Russia. (last one was joking answer when manpower discussion mentioned there are plenty military men in Japan).