Europe's political leaders are under intense pressure to extend sanctions against Russia at a meeting today, following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and the announcement of further sanctions by the United States.
Barack Obama, the president of the United States, announced the measures just as leaders from the European Union's member states began a long-scheduled summit that has turned into a crisis meeting on relations with Russia.
He had timed the announcement of earlier sanctions on 6 March in a similar fashion, just as EU leaders were beginning crisis talks. On that occasion, European diplomats said that Obama's actions had galvanised debate about how to respond to Russia's seizure of Crimea. The summit led to a three-phase sanctions plan.
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Mark Dubowitz, a US think-tanker who authored proposals on sanctions on Iran that were later adopted by the US administration, recently suggested moving to sanctions on a single Russian bank, to scare the entire Russian financial system.
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