"Russia's losses will only grow"

US Secretary of State warned Russia about new and painful sanctions, actually accusing it of disrupting the Geneva Agreement

The United States is ready to impose new sanctions against Russia if it does not stop the destabilization of the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine. This was stated on Thursday by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Russia, according to him, did not take any steps towards the implementation of the Geneva Agreement on the de -escalation of the situation in Ukraine.

According to John Kerry, there can be no doubt that, despite the data in Geneva, Russia continues to destabilize the situation in the south and east of Ukraine. “Our intelligence reports to me that Russian intelligence services, its military intelligence and special forces are playing an active role in the destabilization of Eastern Ukraine,” said US Secretary of State. “For this purpose, Russia uses military, weapons and money. It is engaged in it.

Russian intelligence services, its military intelligence and special forces play an active role in the destabilization of Eastern Ukraine

planning operations and coordination of actions in Ukraine. Ukrainians intercepted and publicized negotiations between Russian agents and their separatist clients in Ukraine. In Slavyansk, Donetsk and Lugansk, the same employees of the Russian special forces were photographed who acted on behalf of Russia in Chechnya, Georgia and Crimea. Some then boasted about this on their pages in Russian social networks. Moreover, we saw how the separatists in Ukraine wear and use the same weapons and equipment used by Russian special forces. ”

Having called the Russian military exercises that began on Thursday on the border with Ukraine with a threatening step, John Kerry said that Russia was at risk of being in the face of new and painful sanctions. "I want to clearly say: if Russia continues to act in the same direction, it will not be just a serious mistake, it will be an expensive mistake."

Kerry further noted that the response of the international community to the choice, which was made by Russian leaders, is already negatively affected by the Russian economy. "The outflow of capital from Russia in the first quarter of 2014 amounted to about 70 billion dollars. It was more than the entire last year. The forecasts of the growth rate of the Russian economy were revised, and, according to them, this pace will slow down by two or three percent. And this is despite the fact that last year the growth of the Russian national gross product since 2009. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Russia was forced to spend 20. Billions of dollars to support the ruble, and thus weakened the buffer that protects Russia from external economic upheavals. "

The window for changing the course closes. President Putin and Russia are facing a choice

According to Kerry, if Russia does not fulfill its promises to decal the situation in Ukraine, but, on the contrary, will continue to escalate the situation, new sanctions from the international community will lead to even more tangible consequences for the Russian economy. "The window for changing the course is closed. President Putin and Russia are facing a choice. If Russia chooses the path of de -escalation, we will only welcome this. But if Russia does not, the world will make sure that Russia's losses will only grow."

John Kerry also said that, trying to justify his actions in Ukraine, the Russian leadership resorts to outrageous, as he put it, propaganda techniques. In particular, he drew attention to the remark of Vladimir Putin that the Internet is a CIA project created to control the whole world, as well as to statements by Russian officials who called armed to the teeth and in a general disciplined people who occupy official buildings in Ukraine, ordinary activists. “Such statements can not be called absurd,” said John Kerry.