Key Developments

• As Russian troops seized another Ukrainian military base in Crimea, interim Ukrainian President Okelsandr Turchynov has ordered the withdrawal of all Ukrainian armed forces from Crimea.
   
• In an appearance on ABC’s This Week, interim Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia warned that Russia’s latest provocation increased the likelihood of war.
   
• The Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) announced on March 21 that U.S. sanctions targeted against its director, Viktor Ivanov, would preclude any cooperation with the U.S., including Afghan narcotrafficking.  The statement further blamed the U.S. and NATO for the explosive increase of illegal drug production in Afghanistan.
   
• Visa and Mastercard temporarily blocked transactions from two Russian banks jointly owned by two Russian oligarchs, Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, sanctioned by the U.S. government.  Transactions were restarted after both credit card companies received clarifications from the U.S. government that, at present, companies managed by individuals sanctioned have not been targeted.
   
• President Obama is in Europe to discuss the Crimea crisis with President Xi Jinping of China and the leaders of the G7 on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit.
   
  • In a speech before Rembrandt’s The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, President Obama stated that “Europe and America are united in our support of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people.”
     
  • The leaders of the G7 are likely to discuss additional sanctions against Russia and the June meeting of the G8 originally scheduled to be held in Sochi.
     
• A prominent Russian politician called for Ukraine to be partitioned by its neighbors along the lines of the infamous 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.  The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was a non-aggression pact that also divided the territories of several Eastern European countries, including Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland into Soviet and Nazi spheres of influences.
   
• Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that Crimea may be granted the status of a special economic zone
   
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai has publicly backed the Russian annexation of Crimea.  In a statement released by his office, Karzai said that Afghanistan “respect[s] the decision the people of Crimea took through a recent referendum that considers Crimea as part of the Russian Federation.”  Afghanistan becomes only the third nation, after Syria and Venezuela, to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
   
• In the face of tightening Western sanctions, Russia is likely to fall into a recession.

Government Statements

Statement from Russian Federal Drug Control Service on sanctions levied against Viktor Ivanov (in Russian)

Articles

Michael D. Shear, Alison Smale and David M. Herszenhorn, “Obama, in Europe, Says Allies ‘United’ on Ukraine,” The New York Times, March 24, 2014

Boriana Milanova and Victoria Butenko, “Ukraine orders Crimea troops withdrawal as Russia seizes naval base,” CNN, March 24, 2014

Lidia Kelly, “Russia politician proposes new division of Ukraine,” Reuters, March 24, 2014

“Crimea may get special economic zone status – Medvedev,” The Voice of Russia, March 24, 2014

Andra Timu, Henry Meyer and Olga Tanas, “Russia Facing Recession as Sanctions Likely to Intensify,” Bloomberg, March 24, 2014

Ted Galen Carpenter, “Are the Baltic States Next?,” The National Interest, March 24, 2014

“G7 leaders discuss Crimea crisis at The Hague,” EuroNews, March 24, 2014

Michael A. McFaul, “Confronting Putin’s Russia,” The New York Times, March 23, 2014

Matthew Rosenberg, “Breaking with the West, Afghan Leader Supports Russia’s Annexation of Crimea,” The New York Times, March 23, 2014

J. Dana Stuster, “Ukrainian Foreign Minister Says Chances of War Are ‘Growing,’” Foreign Policy, March 23, 2014

Scott Wilson, “Obama’s aim to shift U.S. foreign policy runs up against an old Cold War rival,” The Washington Post, March 23, 2014

Kathrin Hille, “Visa and MasterCard restart payments for Russian banks,” The Financial Times, March 23, 2014

James S. Robbins, “Would America Go to War with Russia?,” The National Interest, March 22, 2014

“Sanctions destroy anti-trafficking cooperation with US-Russian drug agency,” RT, March 21, 2014