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Sea of Azov, which is home to two of Ukraine’s biggest ports.
Ukraine's foreign ministry slammed the navigation restrictions, which were initially reported without specifics, as
a "usurpation of the sovereign rights
of Ukraine.”
Moscow reaction
Russia expelled 10 US diplomats from the country in the traditional tit-for-tat retaliation for Washington’s decision
to expel the same number of diplomats from the US as part of Biden’s package of sanctions the same week, as well as suggesting that US Ambassador John Sullivan return home for consultations.
Moscow also banned eight high-ranking US officials from entering the country, including former national security advi- sor John Bolton, FBI Director Christopher
Lavrov warned Russia has options to hurt the United States economically and to shrink its diplomatic corps in Russia to just 300 people, but was holding fire for now. While Russia’s economic leverage over the US is limited, it does control 40% of Boeing’s supply of titanium amongst other things, an essential metal in the construction of aircraft. Boeing has a large R&D facility in Russia and is reliant on Russia for the metal.
Biden reaches out
Biden followed up the release of his sanctions with comments to try to pour some oil on the ruffled waters. He is playing a difficult game where on the one hand he needs to appear tough on Russia for domestic political reasons and on the other, keeping the door open for co-operation with Russia on
a number of international problems for which he needs Russia’s help, including
saying: “This is not the time to escalate. We want stable and sustained relations with Russia.”
However, Biden emphasised the tense nature of the relations and warned things could go badly instead of well.
“If Russia continues to interfere with our democracy, I’m prepared to take further actions to respond. It is my responsibility as President of the United States to do so,” Biden said from the White House.
“I was clear with President Putin that we could have gone further, but I chose not to do so, I chose to be proportionate,” Biden said of the measures, adding that he did not want to “kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia.”
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov met these comments with equally pragmatic comments that significantly scaled down some of the harsher rhetoric from Russian lawmakers following the new sanctions release.
"(Putin) has repeatedly said we're ready to develop dialogue as much as our counterparts are ready to do so. In this sense it is probably positive that the views of the two heads of state coincide," Peskov told reporters before the Russian counter sanctions were unveiled.
Nevertheless, the summit will be hard to organise as the two sides dance around the fraught relations denigrated by years of confrontation.
Russia’s foreign ministry said Biden's Putin summit proposal had been initially well received, but was now being studied in the context of unfolding events.
"We would like to avoid a further escalation with the United States. We are ready for calm and professional dialogue, " the ministry said.
"However, the reality is that we hear one thing from Washington and in practice we see something completely different. There should be no doubt – not a single sanctions 'wave' will remain unpunished."
“We cannot stay indefinitely in the EU and NATO waiting room. If we belong to the same family, we must live together. We cannot go out together forever, like eternal fiancées; we must legalise our relations.”
Wray, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, US Attorney General Mer- rick Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Others to face an entry ban were Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal, Director of the Domestic Policy Council Susan Rice and ex-CIA head Robert James Woolsey, Reuters reports.
In addition, the Kremlin said it would make it harder for the US embassy in Moscow to staff itself by banning Russian nationals from working at the embassy.
"Now is the time for the United States to demonstrate good sense and to turn its back on a confrontational course," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement. "Otherwise an array of painful decisions for the American side will be implemented."
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Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the fight against international terrorism, dealing with the climate crisis and restarting arms control talks.
The Kremlin is well aware of Biden’s dilemma and has also been careful to
cut him some wiggle room. Lavrov has warned that Moscow will react harshly to sanctions imposed by Washington that cause “economic damage” to the Russian economy, leaving the White House
a loophole to impose sanctions without bringing down a harsh retaliation. The fact that the Kremlin suggested a summit between Putin and Biden remains
a possibility following new US sanctions suggests that Biden’s sanctions were acceptable to Moscow.
Biden reiterated the message of compromise in comments the day after the new sanctions were released by