As Western powers stepped up the pressure on Moscow over the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, the White House on Monday slapped sanctions on seven Russian officials and 17 firms close to President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead....
The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
said it was adding 15 names to its own list while Canada added nine names and two banks.
Tensions on the ground in Ukraine spiked when a pro-Moscow mayor was shot and badly maimed and rebels seized another town.
The Pentagon said that Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel had spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu and that "Shoigu reiterated his assurance that Russian forces would not invade Ukraine".
Defence Department front man Rear Admiral John Kirby, in a statement, said the two men discussed a range of issues related to the situation in Ukraine, with Hagel requesting clarification of Russia's intentions in eastern Ukraine.