Are Russia sanctions working?: Merkel ally
US imports ban mulled
BERLIN, April 14, (Agencies): A senior conservative ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel questioned whether sanctions against Russia were working, aligning himself with much of the Social Democrat rank-andfile in calling for Germany to keep up a dialogue with Russia.
The remarks by Alexander Dobrindt, parliamentary leader of arch-conservative Bavarian Christian Social Union, raise the pressure on Merkel as western countries contemplate a harsher approach to Russia after allegations it was behind a poison attack in Britain on retired double agent Sergei Skripal.
The divisions highlight the tightrope Merkel must walk to satisfy the demands of allies to keep up the pressure on Russia while placating businesses that are increasingly frustrated at years of export income lost to sanctions.
“It is very controversial whether sanctions against Russia work as they are meant to,” he told Funke Media Group, adding that, though Britain had Germany’s “full support in the Skripal affair”, Germany had a particular responsibility to maintain a
Merkel
dialogue with Russia.
Dobrindt’s remarks come as Merkel’s Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners — traditionally the more pro-Russian of the main parties — are more divided than ever over the question of how to deal with an increasingly assertive Moscow.
A Forsa poll published on Friday showed 81 percent of the party’s members opposed the harder line on Russia advocated by new SPD foreign minister Heiko Maas.
The same poll, commissioned by a consultancy run by a former SPD lawmaker with close ties to Russia, found 69 percent of Germans opposed the decision to expel four Russian diplomats in the wake of the Skripal affair.
Western countries introduced sanctions against Russia in 2014 after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Since, Russian support for Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war and the poison attack in Britain have soured relations further.
Russia eyes US imports ban:
Russia’s lower house of parliament is to consider draft legislation that would give the Kremlin powers to ban or restrict a list of US imports, reacting to new US sanctions on a group of Russian tycoons and officials.
Senior lawmakers in the State Duma, which is dominated by Kremlin loyalists, said they had prepared the list ranging from food and alcohol to medicine and consulting services in response to Washington’s move last week.
It was not immediately clear if the draft legislation — which would allow the government to impose the measures should the need arise — would become law in its current form, or if it had the backing of the Kremlin.
A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it was understandable that Russian lawmakers wanted to retaliate against the US measures. He said, though, that the Kremlin had yet to familiarise itself with the draft law.
The Russian parliament is often used to send assertive messages to foreign states, but these do not always translate into concrete measures.
Large-scale restrictions on US goods and services would hurt American firms but could also cause significant disruption in Russia, where consumers flock to McDonald’s restaurants, fly on vacation in Boeing jets, and use Apple phones.
The draft law, according to a text seen by Reuters, is aimed at protecting Russia’s interests and security in the face of “unfriendly and unlawful acts by the United States of America and other foreign states”.
Russian currency and stock markets, preoccupied with the threat of US military action in Syria and the fallout from Washington’s new sanctions, did not react to the draft legislation. It is to be discussed in the lower house next week. The proposed measures are in retaliation for the White House’s imposition of the toughest set of sanctions on Russia since Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, which dragged relations to their lowest point since the Cold War.
Moscow reacted then with countersanctions banning a wide range of food imports from Western countries. Russia imported $12.5 billion worth of US products in 2017, according to official customs data. That included aircraft, machinery, pharmaceutical and chemical products.
The draft legislation would give authorities the power to impose bans or restrictions in multiple areas of trade with the United States if they deemed that Washington was threatening Russia’s interests.
The sectors listed in the draft which could be subject to bans or restrictions include US-made software and farm goods, US medicines that can be sourced elsewhere, and tobacco and alcohol.
It gives the government the power to ban cooperation with the United States on atomic power, rocket engines and aircraft making, and to bar US firms from taking part in Russian privatisation deals.
The provision of auditing, legal and consulting services by US firms could also be subject to bans or restrictions, and curbs could be imposed on US citizens working in Russia.
Telegram messaging app blocked:
A Moscow court on Friday ruled to block the popular messaging app Telegram in Russia, after it refused to give state security services access to private conversations.
The ruling follows a long-running battle between authorities and Telegram, which has a reputation for securely encrypted communications, as Moscow pushes to increase surveillance of internet activities.
The Roskomnadzor telecoms watchdog, which brought the case, had earlier demanded the service be blocked as soon as the verdict was announced.
Telegram was found to have breached a law that requires social media sites that use encoding to give the key to security services to decode messages.
The app’s maverick creator Pavel Durov wrote on social media that “Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed.”
Dubbed Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg, Durov has amassed a fortune of $1.7 billion (1.4 billion euros) at 33, according to Forbes magazine. He banned lawyers representing Telegram from attending the court hearing so as not to legitimise the case.