MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) – US President Barack Obama has announced he will talk with key European leaders on Friday evening about new sanctions against Russia.
“I’ll be talking with … some key European leaders again this evening, making sure that they share my assessment in terms of what’s happened since the Geneva talks took place. As I said yesterday, we already have a series of additional targeted sanctions that are ready to go, assuming that we don’t see any drastic changes in behavior on the part of the Russians,” Obama said Friday during a press conference in South Korea.
President Obama said the United States and European leaders are laying the groundwork for sanctions against sectors of Russia's economy which would have “even larger consequences” in case of greater escalation or “perhaps even military incursion by Russia into Ukraine.”
Although European leaders have been unequivocal on condemning Russia, several countries within Europe including the Czech Republic and Slovakia, have expressed skepticism about additional sanctions on Russia as they could have a negative impact on the EU’s economy.
While there is some "variation inside of Europe" and differences between the assessment of the US and European countries, "we want to work with them to make sure that we are coordinating as much as possible because that’s going to maximize our efforts,” the US leader said.
Meanwhile, he said it is important not to anticipate that the targeted sanctions against Russia necessarily solve the problem.
“What we've been trying to do is continually raise the costs for Russia of their actions while still leaving the possibility of them moving in a different direction. And we will continue to keep some arrows in our quiver in the event that we see a further deterioration of the situation over the next several days or weeks," Obama said.
The Reuters news agency, citing confidential sources, reported that UK Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi are to hold a phone conference to discuss the sanctions.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier this month the US is also working on new sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy due to its interference in Ukrainian internal affairs.
The US, EU and their allies introduced sanctions against several Russian politicians, lawmakers and businessmen, freezing their assets and banning them from receiving visas.
The G7 countries also threatened Russia with broad economic sanctions in case of further escalation of the situation in Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has called the language of sanctions in relation to Russia both inappropriate and counterproductive.
