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U.S., EU to work together on tougher Russia sanctions

26 March 2014 18:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United States and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to work together to prepare possible tougher economic sanctions in response to Russia's behavior in Ukraine, including on the energy sector, and to make Europe less dependent on Russian gas, APA report6s quoting Reuters.

U.S. President Barack Obama said after a summit with top EU officials that Russian President Vladimir Putin had miscalculated if he thought he could divide the West or count on its indifference over his annexation of Crimea.

Leaders of the Group of Seven major industrial powers decided this week to hold off on sanctions targeting Moscow's economy unless Putin took further action to destabilize Ukraine or other former Soviet republics.

"If Russia continues on its current course, however, the isolation will deepen, sanctions will increase and there will be more consequences for the Russian economy," Obama told a joint news conference with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

He also said NATO should step up its presence in new east European member states bordering on Russia and Ukraine to provide reassurance that the alliance's mutual defence guarantee would protect them.

Russian forces in Crimea captured the last Ukrainian navy ship after firing warning shots and stun grenades, completing Moscow's grip on military installations in the Black Sea peninsula. Kiev has ordered its forces to withdraw.

Western concern has focused on Russian troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border amid Kremlin allegations of attacks on Russian speakers in that industrial region of the country.

But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday it seemed likely that the firm Western response so far would stop Russia undertaking what he called "other acts of aggression and interference on the territory of Ukraine".

The new Ukrainian authorities announced a radical 50 percent increase in the price of domestic gas from May 1, meeting an unpopular condition for International Monetary Fund aid which Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich had refused before he was ousted last month.

Kiev is seeking $15-20 billion in IMF assistance to help stabilise its shattered economy. Russia has said it will increase the price it charges Ukraine for gas from April.