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Europeans Discuss Limited New Sanctions on Russia Despite Anger Over Downed Jetliner, Europe Shies Away From Sanctions on Russia
(about 5 hours later)
BRUSSELS — Under pressure to display resolve and common purpose following the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet over eastern Ukraine, European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday discussed limited new sanctions against Russia. But their action fell short of stronger measures, like an arms embargo, that some member states had called for. AMSTERDAM — In cafes across the Netherlands a new Cold War with Russia had already erupted.
From the beginning of the talks on Tuesday, and for weeks before, the ministers had been seen as unlikely to impose tough new measures immediately, for fear of jeopardizing an independent search of the crash site and possible Russian help in quelling rebellion in Ukraine. “We have to draw a line somewhere,” said Meindert van der Kaaij, a silver-haired journalist, lamenting over beers those who died on Flight 17, 193 of them from the Netherlands. “We must say something.”
The gathering also played out against divisions between countries like Britain and other nations, notably Germany, eager to preserve some channel of dialogue with Russia to protect economic interests and energy supplies. Russia, everybody agreed, was the real culprit.
“It is time to make our power, influence and resources felt,” Prime Minister David Cameron told the British Parliament on Monday, advocating tougher sanctions against parts of the Russian economy in response to the Kremlin’s support for the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine who have been accused of bringing down the airliner. “What can we do?” Niels Romijn, a civil servant, snapped back. “We must be realistic; there is just not much we can do.”
“Russia cannot expect to continue enjoying access to European markets, European capital, European knowledge and technical expertise while she fuels conflict in one of Europe’s neighbors,” Mr. Cameron said. It was a mirror image of the debate that unfolded in bland diplomatic language in Brussels, where foreign ministers of the European Union’s 28 member states were under pressure to display resolve and common purpose after the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet over eastern Ukraine. In the end, there was plenty of tough talk, no real punishment for Russia despite calls from Australia, Britain and the United States, who have all accused Russia of supplying the missile that brought down Flight 17, to take a tougher line.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the foreign ministers agreed to draw up a new and broader list of targets for sanctions, including Russian individuals and entities, said Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief. Despite widespread anger over the plane’s downing, European nations have shied away from measures that would further isolate Russia. Dependent on Russian gas and oil, wary of confrontation on the Continent and alive to the fact of Russia’s proximity, Europe’s leaders have largely decided they will have to live with a newly assertive Russia.
The ministers are examining proposals to restrict Russian “access to capital markets, defense, dual-use goods and sensitive technologies including in the energy sector,” Ms. Ashton said. The proposals would be drawn up by the European Commission, the bloc’s policy making body, and would be discussed on Thursday. “Almost every European state has voluntarily handed over power to Mr. Putin, allowing him to play countries against each other” said Marietje Schaake, an influential member of the European Parliament. “We should choose for energy independency, for principles, human rights and rule of law. But that is not what we are doing now.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, the foreign ministers agreed to draw up a new, broader list of targets for sanctions, including Russian individuals and entities, said Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief.
But no new additional measures were imposed, reflecting fears among some Europeans that tougher sanctions would invite reprisals by Russia against countries dependent on its energy supplies, harming the Continent’s economic growth.But no new additional measures were imposed, reflecting fears among some Europeans that tougher sanctions would invite reprisals by Russia against countries dependent on its energy supplies, harming the Continent’s economic growth.
Meanwhile, President François Hollande of France said before the ministers’ meeting in Brussels that the first part of a contentious deal to sell two Mistral-class helicopter carrier ships to Russia would go ahead, in part to spare France the need to reimburse Russia for a canceled contract. Nowhere is the European conundrum clearer than in the Netherlands, a tiny nation of 16 million but one of the wealthiest in the European Union. For more than a decade, the Dutch have been forging closer ties with Russia, emphasizing growing trade and economic partnership while pointedly ignoring Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s regional ambitions.
Britain and the United States had publicly opposed the deal. Mr. Cameron went so far as to say that a sale of that kind by his country’s muscular arms industry would be “unthinkable.” And the Obama administration made clear again on Tuesday that it wanted stronger support from Europe in imposing “costs” on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the Kremlin’s support of the separatists in eastern Ukraine accused in the West of downing the airliner. Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, which has its head office in The Hague, is one of the largest foreign investors in Russian gas fields in Siberia. Shell is the largest corporation in the Netherlands, and its stock is widely held in the nation’s pension funds. If Shell loses money, the pensions of Dutch teachers, civil servants and many others suffer.
“We should have had an arms embargo quite some time ago,” Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, told reporters before the meeting. “To deliver arms to Russia in this situation is somewhat difficult to defend, to put it mildly.” As a result, the ties between Shell and the government are extremely close, and the company’s welfare inevitably influences policy, analysts said.
On Monday evening, Mr. Hollande pre-empted the argument, saying that the first of the two warships covered by the agreement with Russia was almost built and would be delivered as planned in October. “They have direct access to everybody in the establishment,” said Sweder van Wijnbergen, who was the secretary-general of the ministry of economic affairs from 1997 to 2000. His former boss in that job, the then-minister in charge of the economy, Hans Wijers, sits on the Shell board of directors. “Naturally Shell will try to prevent any sanctions against Russia,” Mr. van Wijnbergen said. “Of course the government ultimately makes its own decisions.”
“For the time being, a level of sanctions has not been decided that would prevent this delivery,” Mr. Hollande said. “The Russians have paid,” he said, and cancellation of the deal would oblige France to reimburse Russia to the tune of 1.1 billion euros, or $1.5 billion. A spokesman for the company declined to say whether Shell would reconsider its investments in Russia after the downing of the plane. Four Shell employees died in the crash of Flight 17.
“Could the rest of the contract be honored?” Mr. Hollande asked, referring to the second warship. “That will depend on Russia’s attitude. I say that very clearly. But at this stage no sanction has been decided that would oblige us to cancel.” After China, the Netherlands is Russia’s most important trading partner. The Russians and the Dutch have invested billions in each other’s countries. In 2012, the Netherlands imported 20.3 billion euros, or about $27.3 billion, worth of gas, reselling 95 percent of it to the rest Europe, official statistics show. Russia imported 7.2 billion euros in office equipment, food and flowers.
His remarks drew a tart response from President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania, who compared the deal to the 1930s appeasement of Nazi Germany. She said in a radio interview quoted by Reuters that European indecision was “a direct invitation for the aggressor to be more aggressive and go further.” The port of Rotterdam saw the import of Russian oil rise fivefold over the past decade, making the country the largest importer of Russian gas. Shell has been a major investor in a huge Russian liquefied natural gas project in Siberia.
Some nations like the Netherlands, whose citizens accounted for almost 200 of the 298 people killed on the Malaysian plane, seemed to have shifted ground as a result of the disaster. The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said attitudes had changed “fundamentally,” while the Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, said there was “no Dutch blockade of further sanctions. The Netherlands wants the European Union to make a united, and also strong, clear statement against the unrest in eastern Ukraine.” The Dutch entanglement with Russia through Shell is emblematic of ties that many European nations have with Russia.
Arriving at the meeting, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany said, “I say we remain open to defusing the situation with all political and diplomatic means, but it will be necessary to accompany this willingness with higher pressure, which also means sharper measures.” In making the case for tougher sanctions to his Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain argued that Europe should use its economic leverage against Russia.
“It is time to make our power, influence and resources felt,” Mr. Cameron said Monday.
But other European countries have parried efforts to strengthen penalties on Russia.
France has opposed proposed sanctions against arms sales to Russia, in part because it is building two Mistral-class helicopter ships for Russia’s military.
“For the time being, a level of sanctions has not been decided that would prevent this delivery,” President François Hollande of France said Monday. “The Russians have paid,” he said, and canceling the deal would require France to reimburse Russia at a cost of 1.1 billion euros, or $1.5 billion.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on Monday said that communication lines with Russia needed to stay open.
Juurd Eijsvoogel, a foreign affairs columnist for one of the leading Dutch newspapers, NRC Handelsblad, said, ““Germany does not follow the U.S. blindly.”In Ukraine, Europe was widely seen as waffling.
“It looks like they will not impose any strict sanctions,” said Svitlana Khutka, an associate professor of sociology at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kiev.
“Why? Because they say they are very concerned, deeply concerned, very, very concerned, very much concerned, so very deeply concerned,” she said in an interview. “You just don’t believe that they are concerned, because it is quite evident that they have their own interests.”
As the Dutch declared Wednesday, when the remains of passengers onboard Flight 17 are expected to arrive in the Netherlands, a day of mourning, Dutch leaders were carefully trying to balance the open anger, with an increasing number of people calling the incident a “war crime,” and the country’s deep economic ties with Russia.
In full-page advertisements in major Dutch newspapers, the government offered condolences, but described the downing of the plane as a “disaster” rather than a missile strike. In recent days, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands has made sure to keep his lines of communication with Mr. Putin open, to “bring the bodies home,” he has said repeatedly.
Behind the scenes, Dutch investors in Russia are also consulted, former insiders said. “Of course representatives of Shell are discreetly talking to the government throughout the plane ordeal, in order to minimize damage to the company,” Mr. van Wijnbergen said.
Many Dutch people said they hoped for a tougher stance toward Russia from Mr. Rutte.
“His real test will come after the bodies have arrived here, and after we have mourned,” said Mr. Van der Kaaij of Mr. Rutte. “I think many people in the Netherlands expect him to take a tougher stance. What kind of country are we if we just smooth this over?”