00:23 GMT +3 hours30 April 2016
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US State Dept Pledges to Retain Sanctions Until Russia Returns Crimea

© Sputnik/ Sergey Pyatakov
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Washington will not lift the anti-Russian sanctions until Moscow decides to “return Crimea to Ukraine”.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Washington will not lift the sanctions imposed after the reunification of Crimea with Russia until Moscow decides to “return Crimea to Ukraine,” the spokesman for the US State Department said.

Crimea, which has a predominately ethnically-Russian population, seceded from Ukraine to rejoin Russia two years ago following a referendum on March 16 in which over 96 percent of voters supported the move.

“We will not accept the redrawing of borders by force in the 21st century. Sanctions related to Crimea will remain in place as long as the occupation continues. We again call on Russia to end that occupation and return Crimea to Ukraine,” John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday.

He added that Washington remains committed to “a united, sovereign Ukraine.”

In 2014, the United States, the European Union and some of their allies imposed a series of economic sanctions targeting key Russian sectors as well as a number of individuals and entities over Russia’s reunification with Crimea and its alleged interference in the conflict between Kiev and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine, denied by Moscow.

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Tags:
anti-Russian sanctions, conflict, border, trade, us state department, EU, Crimea, United States, Russia
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  • tony p
    Until the next administration.
  • landauroj
    Tell me who saction the USA for taken Hawai island from thier owners, i.e the Hawain queen? Do not take note of sactions and execute alternatives measurements to defeact the USA sactions
  • Robert
    This is another proof of the thickness of Washington's skull; it is so thick that not even reason could pierce it. The fact of the matter is, IT IS NOT EVEN UP TO RUSSIA TO RETURN CRIMEA TO THE UKRAINE. THAT CHOICE IS THE PRIVILEGE OF THE CRIMEAN PEOPLE ALONE.
  • teddy j
    americans are TRULY delusional -- they truly believe that they are the masters of russia -- and can ordere russia around....

    crimea was already russian - when the usa was just a baby...so where do these americans get their notions russia must ''decide to return crimea" to a ukraine that was CREATED by RUSSIA herself?!! and are just taken over by FASCISTS today? !!

    lol!
  • jas
    We will not accept the redrawing of borders by force in the 21st century.
    --
    I have no idea how he can say that without laughing.
  • Skippy !!!in reply tojas(Show commentHide comment)
    jas, you is correct, he is possessed, by the N.W.O.!!!
  • teddy jin reply toMikhas(Show commentHide comment)
    Mikhas,


    excellent statement !!! straight to the HEART of the real issue and subject:

    the american BASTARD nation!
  • teddy jin reply tolandauroj(Show commentHide comment)
    landauroj,

    true!
  • teddy jin reply toRobert(Show commentHide comment)
    Robert,

    and yet the crimean people ARE russian!! isn/t it \? it's just the usa obsessing about trying to be ''king and lord and master?" over russia.
  • Skippy !!!
    To hell with the AmeriCARNTS!!! LOL
  • aggttc
    Time to kill the USD
  • choticastile
    All time joke of the century! Hell would freeze over before that happens! Viva Russia!
  • choticastilein reply toMikhas(Show commentHide comment)
    Mikhas, Bravo!
  • choticastilein reply tojas(Show commentHide comment)
    jas, They're incapable of genuine laughter only laughter from them is when they achieve their unholy aims as with the US rape of Libya, the never to be forgotten all time infamous, Killary Klinton's raucous cackle about Qadaffi -- when she said, "We came, we saw, he died!"
  • Selectric Typeball
    Let's rule out John Kirby as an idiot. This is just a deliberate attempt to prolong the sanctions against Russia unnecessarily. They already know Crimea was only artificially part of Ukraine from 1954-1991 and that it should have been returned then. They also know that Russia followed the rules of international law, with the referendum.

    It needs to be proclaimed that the US loses international credibility, when using sanctions as an artificial political manipulation, instead of for genuine reasons. This unfortunate decision is a black-eye on the State Department.
  • innocappuccinno
    these NATO leaders, are they stupid? until Russia returns Crimeea means never, cause Russia will never return Crimeea. USA itself will not endure forever, and Crimeea will still belong to Russia. Are they saying that the sanctions will last till NATO will be dead?! then let it die!
  • itchyvet .
    QUOTE, " “We will not accept the redrawing of borders by force in the 21st century." UNQUOTE.
    Now that IS good news indeed. Does that mean, the proposed dividing up of Syria into smaller states is now History too ?
    You cant have it both ways can you ?
  • Harold Jay Hoover
    Washington remains committed to uniting murderers with their potential victims and to arming those murders? The US Department of State is no place for neoconservatives. Get them out! sptnkne.ws/aCm
  • citizen
    Cry me a river u.s. mafia corporation. Crimea is Russian and always will be. It's a love story. The rest of the world needs too combine forces and as such the mafia will become irrelevant.
  • citizen
    If any country should be sanctioned it is the u.s. mafia corporation!
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