Washington Insists on Further US and EU Sanctions Against Russia

The White House insists that the US and EU apply tighter restrictions to Russia in view of the developments in Ukraine, stated the official representative of the American National Defense Council.

Such was her reaction to the decision by the EU made earlier the same day on postponing the agreed sanctions to see how the implementation of the truce goes, informs Censor.NET citing NR-Ukraine.

According to the NSC officer, the American government has not changed its stance on the restrictions issue since US President Obama made a statement as to this on Friday, September 5, during a press conference summarizing the NATO summit in Newport (UK).

Washington officials believe that "Russia needs to bear additional costs," meaning imposition of further sanctions, elaborated the NSC representative. According to her, the grounds for such measures is "military aggression of Russia against Ukraine."

"The US and Europe are finalizing measures to deepen and broaden our sanctions across Russia's financial, energy and defense sector," added the NSC official.

She neglected to answer whether Washington intends to wait on the next steps to be taken by the EU to coordinate the actions with it or if the US plan to implement and independent sanctions package against Russia.

In his turn, EU President Herman Van Rompuy stated: "The entry into force (of the new sanctions) through the publication in the Official Journal will take place in the next few days. This will leave time for an assessment of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the peace plan. Depending on the situation on the ground, the EU stands ready to review the agreed sanctions in whole or in part."

According to foreign press, the sanctions will target three largest state-owned Russian oil companies: Rosneft, Transneft, Gazprom Neft, as well as several enterprises producing weapons. The EU also intends to reduce the maximum circulation term for their debentures placed in 28 EU states from 90 to 30 days. Besides, the sanctions package will allegedly blacklist at least 20 more physical persons from Russia and Ukraine.