Secretary of State John Kerry labelled sending Russian troops to Crimea as “incredible act of aggression” and added that, should Russia carry on, the G8 summit might never happen and Russia will find itself totally isolated.
Russia might lose its G8 seat if it rejects to change the stance on Crimea. Putin "is not going have a Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8 if this continues. He may find himself with asset freezes on Russian business, American business may pull back, there may be a further tumble of the ruble," Kerry warned on NBC's Meet the Press.
“There is a huge price to pay. The United States is united, Russia is isolated. That is not a position of strength,” the top US diplomat told. "If Russia wants to be a G8 country, it needs to behave like a G8 country."
Kerry said G8 nations and some other countries are "prepared to go to the hilt to isolate Russia" with a "broad array of options" available.
"They're prepared to put sanctions in place, they're prepared to isolate Russia economically, and the ruble is already going down. Russia has major economic challenges."
As BBC reported yesterday, the UK authorities decided to pull out of preparatory talks for the G8 summit amid Russia’s build-up of troops in Ukraine. So did France. Moreover, President Barack Obama could boycott the Sochi summit scheduled for June. Canada will ignore it as well.
As for Germany, Italy, and Japan, it is still uncertain if these countries will be represented at the summit.
It is worth reminding that the Federation Council allowed Vladimir Putin to enter to Ukraine armies for safety of the Russian citizens. As the Federation Council has it, “the reason for the invasion is the threat to the lives of citizens of the Russian Federation, our compatriots, and the personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.”
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov informed that Russia’s president had not yet ordered the operation.