The European Union managed to talk the new Greek government, the last holdouts, into ending their objections to extending existing sanctions on Russia, which were scheduled to expire on February 9.
The EU agreed to drop language calling for more sanctions from the draft, and will instead settle for just extending the sanctions, exactly as currently constituted, through September.
The EU is also promising to add a few names to the travel ban and asset freeze list, saying this proves their readiness to escalate the sanctions, even though they probably don’t have the votes for such measures at any rate and had to abandon official language to that effect just to get the Greeks on board.
New EU sanctions have to be unanimous, and several have expressed opposition to new sanctions, noting they would harm their economies at least as badly as it would harm Russia.
And how much did this stunt cost the EU, I mean, German taxpayer?
The first important mistake by the new left government. If the earliest reports are true, the left's leadership has all the earmarks of the 2009 Obama administration what with its nauseating tendency to seek out agreement. Do what you were elected to do for goodness sake, oppose the bastards.
It is sad to see the Greeks capitulate again. I guess we can't expect to see much from the new "people's" government after all
This isvery bad news.
Is the new govt willing to march to the war drums of NATO in return for debt relief?
Hmmm, those new Greek revolutionaries didn't take long to roll over…
"Meet the New Boss, same as the Old Boss"
The old Obama trick, a President who promises the public everything to get into office, then too perfection does the will of the corporate rich who hand picked him for the job.
In reality, the president promised the public and then the public pulled the chair out from under him. Obama doesn't have the support of the American people and that's seen clearly with the gung-ho support of the sniper movie. Even Obama's and Putin's success with stopping a war against Syria was put down with screams of him not honouring his 'red line'.
Face it, domestic politicking is much more important to the US people than making any progress on stopping the US wars of aggression throughout the world.
There is a window of opportunity in the remaining time of Obama's second term. After Obama, that window of opportunity will be closed. A huge outcry of support for Obama and against Netanyahu's planned visit could be a big step in the right direction.
The EU are scum sucking fascists who bend over for their masters in DC at the expense of their people.
I was just reading on RT that Russia may bail Greece out and that Greece didn’t vote to extend sanctions. There seems to be mixed messages here
I've said it before: I don't understand why Mr Ditz makes claims and then links us to his supposed source which doesn't uphold his claims. The Reuters report does not say that Greece had any "objections" to continuing sanctions, it merely claims that the new government's position was "in doubt". In fact, the "doubt" was very cleverly hyped in the press but there's no sign that the other Member States ever doubted Greece's position. The way the EU works is that you give something and you get something. Greece wants to get something, so the last thing it is going to do is rock the boat over Putin, about whom it doesn't give a damn one way or the other. In practice, I don't think the Member States wanted to increase sanctions at this point. They just wanted to put a shot accross Putin's bows. The present level of sanctions seem to be working and economists are predicting the collapse of the Russian economy for later this year. In addition, judging by Putin's whining about the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainians are manifestly winning the war. The attempt to hype this into a "split" in the EU is unsurprising. The whole point of the Putin fiasco was to use him to crush the EU under the neocons' jackboot, something Victoria Nuland royally screwed up.
Timeo danao et dona ferentes.In latin it means I am afraid of greeks and the presents they are bringing.Wait a little bit and it will a ww3 soon.Thanks to Obama and his histeric partners.