US President Barack Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for military intervention in Ukraine, thus threatening Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial borders. Sanctions would include travel bans to the United States and freezing of US assets. It remains unclear, however, who would become a target of these measures.
Sanctions directly targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin are not part of the deal and are currently not up for debate. It would be a very unusual measure and would be unlikely to be the first step, sources close to the US government said.
Russia's oil and gas industry had to be part of the picture, too. The U.S. understand that countries like Germany had a hard time agreeing to sanctions since their economies depend on Russia's energy supply. Obama has been asked to remove restrictions that are currently preventing the US from delivering liquid gas to Europe.
-tk-