Europe's Response to Crimea Falls Short of Washington

Europe has ramped up its response to Russia's annexation of Crimea with a new round of sanctions that still fall short of Washington's moves and will have little bite, experts say.

The European Union this week slapped sanctions on 12 new officials linked to Moscow's takeover of the Crimean peninsula, bringing its blacklist to 33. Among them are Russian politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, along with other members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle and Black Sea and Crimea military commanders.

But, unlike the United States, the EU has not yet extended its measures to economic sanctions. According to Brussels, the annexation of Crimea merits only "Stage 2" sanctions, which include visa bans, asset freezes and political wrist-slapping, such as suspending G8 meetings, halting bilateral summits and stopping negotiations on Russia's joining the OECD.

The EU sanctions "are very limited, their impact is more symbolic," said Xavier Follebouckt, a specialist in Russia and international relations at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

U.S. President Barack Obama meanwhile ordered a second round of hard sanctions on Thursday against nearly two dozen Putin allies and Bank Rossiya, which sent shares tumbling and ratings agencies Standard and Poor's and Fitch changing Russia's outlook to negative from stable.

Several Russian banks including Rossiya and its main shareholder Yuri Kovalchuk -- described as a "crony bank" for the Russian elite by Washington -- saw their customers barred from using Visa and MasterCard credit cards on Friday.

Putin on Friday made light of the latest U.S. sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, saying Moscow would hold off on reciprocal punitive measures. Russia has yet to announce any retaliatory action against the EU.

Ukraine's interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Friday signed the political provisions of a landmark accord on closer ties with Europe as a defiant Russia formally completed its takeover of Crimea with firework displays over Moscow and the Crimean cities of Simferopol and Sevastopol.

"The best way to contain Russia is to submit it to a real economic pressure," he said during his trip to Brussels to sign the pact.

Europe has said it will consider imposing economic sanctions on Moscow, but only if tensions over Ukraine continue to escalate.

Such sanctions would be far more economically damaging to the EU than to the U.S. because of the 28-nation bloc's dependence on Russian gas, which accounts for a quarter of its supplies, and other trade links.

Even imposing sanctions on the 12 new Russian officials blacklisted by the EU is proving difficult as some have hidden assets in Luxembourg and Cyprus, said a European diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

If economic sanctions were imposed "one would have to consider the distribution of the potential burden of injury among EU countries," said another diplomatic source.

Overall, "Europe and the United States have taken a different approach" to imposing sanctions with the EU focusing more on targeting "people with a direct link to the Crimea," said British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday.

Europeans in particular want to avoid the EU being brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union. That meant the decision to sanction Russian journalist Dmitri Kiselev, known for his vitriolic anti-Western diatribes, was hotly debated out of fear Putin could denounce the move as Europe restricting freedom of the press.

Comparing the U.S. list and the European list "is not relevant," said one senior European official. "We are not in competition with the United States."

He defended Europe's moves as having more of a psychological impact than sanctions imposed by the U.S. as those targeted will be barred from visiting major European cities and resorts.

"The weight of our list is much heavier than the U.S. list. Psychologically it weighs more," the official added. "The most important thing is political and diplomatic isolation" of Russia.

But experts have criticized Europe's reaction to Russia's push into Ukraine as weak.

Thomas Gomart, director of strategic development at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), said that "individual sanctions are not up to the challenge".

Bertrand Badie, an expert on international relations at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, goes even further, arguing that Europe is "close to making a fool of itself with these type of sanctions".