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Obama Warns an Absent Russia of Broader Sanctions With Group of 7 Backing, Obama Gives Russia One-Month Ukraine Deadline
(about 7 hours later)
BRUSSELS — President Obama said on Thursday that Russia had about a month to reverse its intervention in Ukraine and rein in the pro-Russian separatist uprising there, or else it would face broader international sanctions aimed at whole sectors of the Russian economy. BRUSSELS — With the backing of other world leaders, President Obama effectively set a one-month deadline for Moscow to reverse its intervention in Ukraine and help quash a pro-Russian separatist uprising or else he said it would face international sanctions far more severe than anything it had endured so far.
Emerging from a summit meeting in Brussels with the leaders of six other major democracies, Mr. Obama said that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia should recognize and negotiate directly with the newly elected president of Ukraine, Petro O. Poroshenko. Mr. Obama also called on Mr. Putin to stop the flow of fighters and arms across the Russia-Ukraine border and to use Russia’s influence to press the separatists to disarm and relinquish the government buildings they have seized in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Obama and other leaders of seven major democracies meeting here demanded that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia recognize and negotiate directly with the newly elected leader of Ukraine, stop the flow of fighters and arms across the border and press separatists to disarm, relinquish seized public buildings and join talks with the central authorities in Kiev.
“Russia continues to have a responsibility to convince them to end their violence, lay down their weapons and enter into a dialogue with the Ukrainian government,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference alongside Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, after a meeting of leaders of the Group of 7 industrial powers. “On the other hand, if Russia’s provocations continue, it’s clear from our discussions here that the G-7 nations are ready to impose additional costs on Russia.” “Russia continues to have a responsibility to convince them to end their violence, lay down their weapons and enter into a dialogue with the Ukrainian government,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference alongside Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain after a meeting of leaders of the Group of 7 industrial powers. “On the other hand, if Russia’s provocations continue, it’s clear from our discussions here that the G-7 nations are ready to impose additional costs on Russia.”
For the first time, Mr. Obama laid out a time frame, saying that the process could not drag out. “We will have a chance to see what Mr. Putin does over the next two, three, four weeks,” Mr. Obama said, “and if he remains on the current course, then we’ve already indicated what kinds of actions that we’re prepared to take.” For the first time, Mr. Obama laid out a time frame, saying that the process could not drag out.
Mr. Cameron echoed the message. “The status quo is unacceptable,” he said. “The continuing destabilization of eastern Ukraine must stop.” After he listed actions Russia must take, he said, “If these things don’t happen, then sectoral sanctions must follow.” “We will have a chance to see what Mr. Putin does over the next two, three, four weeks,” Mr. Obama said, “and if he remains on the current course, then we’ve already indicated what kinds of actions that we’re prepared to take.”
So far, the United States and the European Union have imposed only limited sanctions, aimed at individual Russians and a handful of companies associated with them, in retaliation for the Russian annexation of Crimea and the violence in eastern Ukraine. The next stage of sanctions mentioned by Mr. Cameron would be broader, cutting off dealings with Russian businesses and institutions in industries like finance, energy or minerals. So far, the United States and European allies have imposed only limited sanctions, aimed at individual Russians and a handful of their companies, in retaliation for the Russian annexation of Crimea and the violence in eastern Ukraine. The next stage would be broader, cutting off dealings with sectors of the economy like finance and energy.
European leaders have resisted such an escalation at least in part because their countries have much deeper economic ties to Russia than the United States does, and their companies have a lot to lose financially. Germany receives about one-third of its natural gas from Russia; Britain has extensive banking ties there, and France does a thriving arms business with the country. European leaders have resisted such an escalation at least in part because their countries have much deeper economic ties to Russia than the United States does. Germany receives about one-third of its natural gas from Russia. Britain has extensive banking ties. France does a thriving arms business with Moscow.
Mr. Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany threatened to impose sectoral sanctions if Russia disrupted the May 25 election in Ukraine that chose Mr. Poroshenko. Pro-Russian separatists worked to stop the voting in the east, but elsewhere the election went ahead, and the United States and European leaders chose not to see the problems in the east as grave enough to merit following through on the threat. Mr. Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany had threatened to impose sectoral sanctions if Russia disrupted the May 25 election in Ukraine that produced Petro O. Poroshenko as the new president. Pro-Russian separatists worked to stop the voting in the east, but the United States and European leaders chose not to see the problems as grave enough to merit following through on the threat.
It remained unclear what the West would do if Russia left matters as they were, neither escalating the situation nor reining in the separatists. France has said it intends to go ahead with a $1.6 billion sale of warships to Russia; Mr. Obama took issue with that decision again on Thursday, before leaving Brussels for Paris to dine with President François Hollande of France. American and European officials are hoping that Mr. Putin’s decision to pull some troops back from the border signals that he wants to defuse the confrontation, either because of the damage done so far to his own economy or because he did not find as much popular support for joining Russia in eastern Ukraine as he did in Crimea.
The group’s summit meeting in Brussels was the first in two decades to exclude Russia, which has been suspended from what had been the Group of 8. Even so, Mr. Hollande, Mr. Cameron and Ms. Merkel all scheduled individual meetings with Mr. Putin; Mr. Hollande, in fact, will host Mr. Putin for a light supper just after his dinner with Mr. Obama. In a small sign of a thaw, Moscow announced on Thursday that its ambassador to Kiev, Mikhail Zurabov, would return to Ukraine in time to attend Saturday’s inauguration of Mr. Poroshenko. Mr. Zurabov was withdrawn in February when Russia objected to the overthrow of President Viktor F. Yanukovych.
Mr. Cameron defended meeting separately with Mr. Putin. “I think it’s right to have this dialogue, particularly if you have a clear message and a clear point to make,” he said. “I think there’s a world of difference between having a dialogue with President Putin and excluding someone” from the summit meeting. It remained unclear what the West would do if Russia largely left matters as they were, neither escalating the situation nor reining in the separatists. France has said that as things stood, it intended to go ahead with a $1.6 billion sale of warships to Russia; Mr. Obama took issue with that decision again on Thursday before leaving Brussels for Paris to dine with President François Hollande of France.
Mr. Obama skated lightly over the disparate decisions. “Do I expect unanimity among the 28 E.U. members?” he asked. “I’ve now been president five and a half years, and I’ve learned a thing or two about the European Union.” With 28 members, there would be disagreements, he said, and “we take that for granted.” The Group of 7’s summit meeting was the first in two decades to exclude Russia, which began attending as a guest in 1993 and joined as a full-fledged member in 1998 but was suspended after annexing Crimea. Even so, Mr. Hollande, Mr. Cameron and Ms. Merkel all scheduled individual meetings with Mr. Putin for Thursday or Friday; Mr. Hollande, in fact, hosted him for a light supper just after dining with Mr. Obama.
And Mr. Obama said he was sensitive to why some European leaders might be reluctant to cut back ties with Russia. “If in fact we do have to move to sectoral sanctions, it’s important to take individual countries’ sensitivities in mind and make sure that everybody is bearing their fair share,” he said. The issue of meeting with Mr. Putin generated a “very detailed discussion” during the leaders’ private session, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, who, like Mr. Obama, opposed doing so. “We’re all agreed on what the next steps would be should we not see appropriate change in Putin’s behavior,” Mr. Harper said afterward.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron insisted that the allies remained united in the face of Russia’s actions. “I’ve been heartened by the steadfastness of Europe thus far,” Mr. Obama said. Mr. Cameron defended meeting separately with Mr. Putin. “It’s right to have this dialogue, particularly if you have a clear message and a clear point to make,” he said. “I think there’s a world of difference between having a dialogue with President Putin and excluding someone” from the summit meeting.
These summit meetings trace their history to 1975, when leaders of the major industrial democracies — United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — inaugurated the Group of 6 to discuss the pressing economic issues of the day. Canada joined a year later, making it the Group of 7, and the European Commission has attended the meetings as an observer nearly since the start. But it is a club with no actual organization, just a rotation of host countries, and over time the agenda broadened well beyond economics to cover all sorts of global issues. Mr. Hollande likewise brushed off the dispute. “The important thing is, we have the same language, the same arguments on Ukraine all together,” he told reporters. “We are seven.”
Boris Yeltsin began attending the summit meetings as Russia’s president in 1993, seeking help for his country as it emerged from the Soviet Union and the Cold War. By 1994, he was being described as a “participant,” and in 1997, when President Bill Clinton was trying to anchor Russia in the international order, he included Mr. Yeltsin in nearly all of the group’s meetings, held that year in Denver. Russia was officially inducted as the eighth member in 1998; its first turn to host a summit meeting came in 2006, when Mr. Putin brought his counterparts to a gleaming palace he had restored outside St. Petersburg. But his dinner with Mr. Obama was already fraught with another fresh source of tension, an American investigation that may result in an $8 billion fine to be paid by the giant French bank BNP Paribas for helping countries like Sudan evade sanctions.
More recently, leaders of countries like China, Brazil and Mexico began attending as observers, to the point that at the 2009 summit meeting in Italy, the first one that Mr. Obama attended, 40 countries were represented, accounting for 90 percent of the world economy. The Italians spent $75 million to create an Olympic-style village for the meeting, and 3,700 journalists were on hand. “It has an impact on the French economy; it has an impact on the European economy,” Mr. Hollande said. But Mr. Obama said he had no control over the inquiry. “Those are decisions that are made by an independent Department of Justice,” he said.
Mr. Obama, who is not a fan of big multilateral meetings, has tried to shift emphasis away from the Group of 8, on the theory that it would be better to focus on the newly assertive and more inclusive Group of 20, which includes a broader range of countries. But instead of absorbing or replacing the Group of 8 meetings, the Group of 20 merely added another international summit meeting to the president’s annual schedule of obligatory trips. The careful choreography of diplomatic dinners extended to Berlin, where Ms. Merkel returned after Thursday’s meetings to host Mr. Poroshenko for the second time in less than a month. Ms. Merkel was unusually effusive, stressing that “Germany would like to be very helpful” as he tackles the huge tasks of maintaining national unity, sovereignty and stability in a shaky economy.
The rupture over Ukraine transformed this year’s meeting. The usual observers and hangers-on were absent, and so was any overarching joint project. The leaders were using existing facilities, and the agenda, while ostensibly covering issues like energy and climate, boiled down to the question of their suspended partner, and what to do about Ukraine. “Your help is needed as never before,” Mr. Poroshenko replied. “Ukraine is paying a heavy price” for its turn toward Europe.
In Brussels, Mr. Obama skated lightly over the disparate positions regarding Mr. Putin. “Do I expect unanimity among the 28 E.U. members?” he said. “I’ve now been president five and a half years, and I’ve learned a thing or two about the European Union.” There will be disagreements among members, he said, and “we take that for granted.”
Mr. Obama used the occasion to pledge again to help the European Union combat attempts by Russia to use energy resources as a weapon. But he emphasized the need to bear some losses to defend shared values.
“Europeans have to stand up for those ideals and principles even if it creates some economic inconvenience,” he said, adding that “if we have sectoral sanctions, I think it will inevitably hit Russia a lot worse than it hits Europe, which have much more diversified and resilient economies.”