Russia G8 status at risk over 'incredible act of aggression' in Crimea, says Kerry

Russia could be expelled from the G8 and face economic sanctions, unless President Vladimir Putin halts his “incredible act of aggression” and withdraws forces from Ukraine, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, warned on Sunday.

Speaking as western nations began suspending preparations for a summit of the eight leading industrialised countries in the Russian city of Sochi in June, Kerry said Moscow could be forced out of the group altogether and face a string of other penalties.

“He is not going to have a Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8 if this continues,” Kerry told NBC’s Meet the Press. “He may find himself with asset freezes, on Russian business, American business may pull back, there may be a further tumble of the ruble.”

Claiming Moscow was already isolated in the face of united condemnation from western allies, Kerry told ABC’s This Week that Putin was inviting “very serious repercussions” such as visa bans and asset freezes for Russian leaders and even economic sanctions.

On CBS’s Face the Nation, he reiterated: “They’re prepared to put sanctions in place, they’re prepared to isolate Russia economically.”

The warnings from America’s most senior diplomat came after Russian forces effectively seized control of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. Putin told Obama during a phone call on Saturday that he reserved the right to take further military action in eastern Ukraine.

On Sunday afternoon, a White House official said President Barack Obama was continuing to be briefed by his national security team on the crisis, and was scheduled to hold telephone calls with British prime minister David Cameron and other allied leaders later in the day.

As the White House struggled to impose pressure on Putin, Kerry accused the Russian leader of acting “in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pretext”.

“It’s an incredible act of aggression,” he told CBS. “It is really a stunning, wilful choice by President Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations.”

Western governments on Sunday threatened to boycott June’s G8 summit in Sochi, which was supposed to be a crowning glory for the Russian Winter Olympic host city, where the Games recently concluded. Kerry told ABC it was a “distinct possibility” that the US would end up not attending.

William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said en route to Kiev that the UK would not attend a planning meeting for the summit that had already been abandoned by France and the US.

Obama and Kerry nonetheless faced sharp criticism for their handling of Putin from Republicans, who claim weakness from the White House overseas in recent years had invited aggression from the Kremlin.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longstanding critic of Obama’s foreign policy credentials, urged the president to “do something” rather than deliver what he called empty threats to “thugs and dictators”.

“Every time the president goes on television and threatens someone like Putin, everybody’s eyes roll, including mine,” Graham told CNN. “We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression.”

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a potential Republican presidential contender in 2016, declared Russia “an enemy of the United States” and said that it would be “important to learn from the errors of the last few years” in Obama’s policy towards Russia.

“They’re not interested in building an international norm that nations conduct themselves under,” Rubio told NBC. “They’re interested in reconstituting Russian power and Russian prestige, often at the expense of US national interests.”

Denouncing Putin’s administration as a “government of liars”, Rubio urged Obama to “strengthen the interim government in Kiev” and revive former president George W Bush’s plans for a missile defence shield in Poland, which were shelved when Obama entered office.

Graham also called for the missile shield to be revived, and advocated the creation of “a democratic noose around Putin’s Russia” through aid to neighbouring countries such as Georgia.

Also on Sunday, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations, Yuriy Sergeyev, told CNN: “If aggravation is going in that way, when the Russian troops are enlarging their quantity with every coming hour, naturally we will ask for military support and other kind of support.”

Kerry played down any suggestion that the US military could become involved in the crisis.

“The last thing anybody wants is a military option in this kind of situation. We want a peaceful resolution through the normal processes of international relations,” he told NBC.