WASHINGTON DC – Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia that the “window to change course is closing” in what appeared to be a final warning to Moscow that the U.S. was readying severe economic sanctions over the situation in Ukraine.
“Let me be clear,” Kerry said. “If Russia continues in this direction, it will not just be a grave mistake, it will be an expensive mistake.”
Speaking at the State Department one week after foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and European Union penned an agreement designed to de-escalate the crisis there, Kerry accused the Kremlin of “a full-throated effort to actively sabotage the democratic effort” in Ukraine.
“Russia has put its faith in distraction, deception, and destabilization,” Kerry said. “For seven days Russia has refused to take a single concrete step in the right direction.”
But Kerry stopped short of providing a concrete deadline for Russia to change course. Nor did Kerry outline the scope of economic penalties that the U.S. and its allies would impose if Russian continued its provocations.
Instead, Kerry again made the case that “in plain sight, Russia continues to fund, coordinate, and fuel a heavily armed separatist movement.”  (read more)