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Companies like oil producer Rosneft -- here, a Rosneft drill site in eastern Siberia -- have been slapped with US sanctions. That has created problems for German companies.
Companies like oil producer Rosneft -- here, a Rosneft drill site in eastern Siberia -- have been slapped with US sanctions. That has created problems for German companies.
But since last week, their moods have darkened. For months, the European Union in particular had been reluctant to enact effective penalties against Moscow. Last Wednesday, though, the 28 EU heads of state and government cleared a psychological hurdle: For the first time, they opted go beyond sanctions targeting individual political leaders in Moscow, adding prohibitions against doing business with specific Russian companies that contribute to the destabilization of the situation in Ukraine. A concrete list is to be presented by the end of the month. European development banks have also been banned from providing loans to Russian companies.
The US, for its part, penalized a dozen leading Russian conglomerates, including oil giant Rosneft, natural gas producer Novatek, Gazprombank and the weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov. From now on, they are forbidden from borrowing money from American monetary institutions and from issuing medium- and long-term debt to investors with ties to the US.
Comment: The military is rife with sexual abuse and does little more than attempt to cover up scandals. The US military does not even protect its own soldiers, which is why many areas hosting US bases are reporting violence of this nature.
The U.S. Military's Rape Culture
Rape rampant in US military
Panetta: Could be 19,000 Military Sex Assaults Each Year
Military justice 'broken', say sexual assault survivors at Senate hearing
Already affecting 71% of U.S. female military personnel by 2004, reported sexual assaults jumped 50% higher in 2013 alone