US warns Russia over G8 seat loss, sanctions
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US Secretary of State John Kerry bluntly warned Russia yesterday that it risked losing its seat among the prestigious Group of Eight nations, as well as economic turmoil, if it fails to pull its forces out of Crimea.
Moscow could also face sanctions from its G8 allies and see American businesses pull out of the country if President Vladimir Putin failed to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine, Kerry said, hitting the Sunday talk shows to ratchet up pressure on Russia.
Kiev’s interim government warned yesterday Ukraine stood on the brink of disaster, and called up military reservists after the Russian parliament voted to allow Putin to send in troops to its western neighbor.
Putin “is not going have a Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8 if this continues. He may find himself with asset freezes on Russian business, American business may pull back, there may be a further tumble of the ruble,” Kerry said.
“There is a huge price to pay. The United States is united, Russia is isolated. That is not a position of strength,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.
Britain and France have already pulled out of preparatory meetings this week for the G8 summit to be held in June in Sochi, and, along with the US and Canada, have also threatened to boycott the summit.
“Russia chose this brazen act of aggression and moved in its forces on a completely trumped up set of pretexts,” Kerry told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“If Russia wants to be a G8 country, it needs to behave like a G8 country.”
But Kerry steered clear of warning of any US military action as pro-Moscow gunmen controlled swaths of Ukraine’s southern peninsula where the Kremlin has based naval fleets since the 18th century.
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