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JOE BIDEN HAS vowed to make it “very, very difficult” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to take military action in Ukraine, saying his administration is putting together a comprehensive set of initiatives to curb Russian aggression.
The US president offered the measured warning to Putin amid growing concern about a Russian build-up of troops on the Ukrainian border and increasingly aggressive rhetoric from the Kremlin.
“What I am doing is putting together what I believe will be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do,” Biden told reporters.
There are signs that the White House and the Kremlin are close to arranging a conversation next week between the two leaders.
Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Friday that arrangements had been made for a Putin-Biden call in the coming days.
He added that the date will be announced after Moscow and Washington finalise details.
The Russians say a date has been agreed, but declined to say when.
Joe Biden did not detail what actions he was mulling over, but Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who met US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Sweden on Thursday, said the US has threatened new sanctions.
He did not detail the potential sanctions but suggested the effort would not be effective.
“If the new ‘sanctions from hell’ come, we will respond,” Mr Lavrov said. “We can’t fail to respond.”
Deep differences were on display during the Blinken-Lavrov meeting, with the Russian official claiming the West was “playing with fire” by denying Moscow a say in any further Nato expansion into countries of the former Soviet Union.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed for Ukraine to join the military alliance, which holds out the promise of membership but has not set a a timeline.
Swift payments system
Anthony Blinken this week said the US has “made it clear to the Kremlin that we will respond resolutely, including with a range of high-impact economic measures that we’ve refrained from using in the past”.
He did not detail what sanctions were being weighed up.
But one could be to cut off Russia from the Swift system of international payments.
The European Parliament approved a non-binding resolution in April to cut off Russia from Swift if its troops entered Ukraine.
Such a move would go far towards blocking Russian businesses from the global financial system.
Western allies reportedly considered such a step in 2014 and 2015, during earlier Russian-led escalations of tensions over Ukraine.
Then-Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said it would be tantamount to “a declaration of war”.
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There is no end to the misery and torment.
@David Corrigan: there is if you want to have a few scoops in Southeast asia and the Pacific.
@David Corrigan: actually look at the trends. Ireland has spiked yes, but cases almost halved on a three day average and in the right direction on 7 day average.
Other countries like the UK have prolonged peaks that are stubbornly staying high. Reducing at a much slower rate.
Our vaccine rollout is actually ahead of most European countries despite the criticism.
There will be very painful weeks ahead but we are on the right side of this. We are all obsessed with the negative dark side of the news but for once, let’s take a breath and look at the hope that is there.
Stay home, stay safe, stop reading the news for a bit and this will get better.
@Motherofthree: It doesn’t affect me in the slightest to be honest. I was thinking more about the business owners, the lonely and elderly.
@Motherofthree: Wise words Mother!
Jesus grim indeed, in a week where Mehole Martin blamed all of us for what happened in the mother and baby homes.
@joe oneill: Why dont you just refer to him as Micheal Martin.
@Michael Carolan: who, mehole ? I actually kinda think it suits him….
@Michael Carolan: of course his name isn’t “Michael” either so…
@Michael Carolan: the very same clown will go in to his office next Tuesday morning and bend the knee to a portrait of Dev, a man whom knew exactly, turned a blind eye to what was going on in the baby farms and instead chose to kiss the ring of every bishop he met, jasus I could think of an awful lot of other names for Mehole.
@Michael Carolan: the very same clown will go in to his office next Tuesday morning and bend the knee to Devs portrait,Dev the kisser of bishops rings and him knowing full well what was going on
in the baby homes.
Mehole, I could think of other names for him.
@joe oneill: Mehole is a pain in the Holohan sometimes.
@Michael Carolan: Free speech.
@joe oneill: ahhh poor micky mumbles!
@joe oneill: you’re a typical left wing, bad influence and probably a Shinner. Thankfully we have decent people in Government.
@john gavin: There we are with the old chestnut.If there’s criticism of the government you must be a shinner..
@john gavin: yeah so decent they had to sneak the 3 Golf gate “senators” back in to the fold, under the cover of the report in to the mother and baby homes, knowing everybody’s heads were turned elsewhere, yeah decent people all right.
We are locked down in the middle of a pandemic and rte has an army of tv licence inspectors touring the country causing more terror. Does the government not realise that the concept of tv licence is of another age and it cannot be defended
@Richard Russell: its a tax of this country.
Pay it if you live here and lobby your TD to do something about it or vote for a different one next time if you are not happy about it.
@Fozz: nope, I’ll continue to dodge the tv license man, thanks!
@Richard Russell: It’s a legal tax of the land and about 13 EUR a month. I’m sure you can afford it.
@Richard Russell: Causing terror?
How were we just at the brink of being overrun in the 1st wave, now we apparently have double the amount of hospital admissions and were still not at the the brink??
@Daniel Andrews: You could argue that we could have had the same amount of hospital admission at the first wave if we had the same capacity as we do now.
@Daniel Andrews: because back then everything was new and we didn’t have any testing capacity, there was very few ICU beds and the Nursing homes were had no support. Now, we have much better testing and ICU capacity, and all non-critical health services have been repurposed to assist in dealing with the pandemic.
@Barry Sorensen: don’t sprout facts like that at people. They are here to make un-educated assumptions.
@Barry Sorensen: And doctors have more knowledge of how best to treat seriously ill patients aswell
@Thomas O’ Donnell: Absolutely. They’re able to treat people sooner and better than the 1st phase with the knowledge they’ve accrued.
An article attempts to draw attention away from domestic crises as usual.
@Elizabeth Dunne: rediculess comment
@Elizabeth Dunne: this is a global pandemic. Did you want to complain about how badly our government is dealing with it etc? Newsflash, it is everywhere, literally every country in the world is dealing with this and the more successful ones that have dealt with it have imposed harsher lockdowns and more stringent measures. Do you not consider it important to view this on a worldwide scale? What exactly was your point?
@Ron Kingston: her point is that it doesn’t suit the agenda of those who simply want to blame Govt for their every woe to show the truth that we all haven’t done so bad.
Ireland as a whole has done very well compared to our European neighbours and that’s down to good leadership but moreso down to good behaviour by the public.
I can’t say why a small subset of people just wish to gloss over that and paint it all so negatively.
@Fozz: I don’t think that was her point but thanks for appointing yourself as translator. The problem is though we have NOT done well, we now have the highest incidence in Europe and as for the behaviour of the public? Are you mad? People here have behaved disgustingly and continue to do so. Not everyone of course but a significant amount of ignoramuses are floating around and spreading it, having parties etc. It’s all a joke to some while others suffer.
@Ron Kingston: if you go back to March through to May we did poorly but when the 2nd wave came we did very well and on cases and deaths we were the best in Europe for cases and deaths bar Finland, Norway and Iceland. If memory serves me correctly some countries failures would have seen between 40 and 70 deaths a day here if replicated here. We went from the top 10 to nearly 50 in deaths per capita and to 75 cases per capita. This was a huge success and, by early December things were looking good and under control. Then we, as a nation, failed badly because of Christmas. Of this there is no doubt. Contact tracing indicates that close contacts went from around 2 to 6. Thus means that people were spending 2 hours or more with family or friends and this contributed to the current surge.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: yes. I know.
@Ron Kingston: I really think that we should have been encouraged by our relative success in handling the 2nd wave – we as in the people for following the advice and the government and NPHET. Many would disagree with me but facts do not lie. Sadly people felt a need or urge to meet up and, in some cases I know of, it was to avoid leaving elderly relatives alone at Christmas while others were more casual or just living traditions. I accept that some were selfish and some travel into and within the country was reckless and there will always be the few .. I saw a 30 second video yesterday of a shop or garage and most people were maskless. The idea that your neighbour or friend or family member might have the virus, and to act as though they have it, has not sunk into some people yet.
With the earlier, 18h to 06h curfew in France, which begins today, no shops are open, everything is closed. You can walk you dog, if you have the right documentation, but that is about it.
@David Stapleton: I am in France right now. Just came home from the market , and shops etc are all open. Not cafes or bars gyms etc , but normal shops ARE open and EVERYONE is out and about where I am.
@Daragh Curtis: what about the 8pm curfew? Was that observed or enforced? When does the 6pm one start? This might explain why France’s attempts to stop the spread is failing or maybe there are areas excepted! Just curious as your comment seems at odds with what is being reported elsewhere.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: France kept its retail open but chose not to open its cafes and restaurants (a big deal for a country like France but they still did it.) The government advice was clear – max 6 people in a home. Strict curfew widely observed and compliance with masks everywhere (including outside.) Rapid testing, freely available. And a genuine solidarity that seems to be lacking in Ireland. Ireland trying to find exceptionalism in fake relativism has been a constant theme and lead to a complacent approach. Every time you look at case numbers multiply it by 13 or 16 to see what the equivalent would be in France or Germany. Not withstanding that we are also an island. It’s been a hash job by a scared leadership, clinging on in in incompetence – afraid to upset the people or the lobbies.
@Daragh Curtis: I thought it was clear, I obviously meant after 6pm when the curfew starts, not before.
“Even in countries that didn’t relax restrictions significantly, higher case numbers are being seen now than during the summer and early autumn”
How to mention this explosion can be explained as seasonal without actually deviating from the narrative!!
@WW: Christmas is seasonal. Not every country was on the 2nd or 3rd wave at the same time. New, more transmittable variants will always emerge and replace existing less transmittable variants. It is not the restrictions that stops or allows the virus to transmit but the actions of the people in adhering yo the advice or restrictions. All you had to do was read the comments here to see that some people were going to have a “normal” Christmas no matter what the restrictions were. I am not sure what narrative you think is being being or not being deviated from. It it were seasonal then South Africa and South America countries would be doing better.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: with respect, I can only speak for this country and I haven’t seen it explained how far more businesses/schools were open and people moving around during August & September yet we didn’t have anywhere near these figures.
With one heart attack behind me and diagnosed with kidney canc6at the mater last nov I m still waiting to be called for my jab by my doctor talk about having one foot in the grave lol
Al the news outlets report “died with Covid”. How many actually died “from” Covid?
@Verners Tess: A better question to ask is “would they still be alive if they didn’t get Covid-19″ .
I suspect for the vast majority the answer would be Yes.
I’m annoyed by this title to be honest. It’s not that new, it’s not a storm, it’s an author ramping up fear with their wording. I guess well done as it made me click in but be aware of your contribution to anxiety with inaccurate, dramatic wording. Hit a nerve and I might not be as fussed another day but I think a bit of awareness / responsibility is needed
One statistic from the UK stats is omitted.
On 5th January 2021 the UK had 78,000 patients in hospital overnight because of the nature of the conditions for which they were admitted.
This obviously is for all conditions and not just Covid.
The same figure for 5th January 2020 was 92,000.
A huge improvement.
Has the HSE provided any stats or figures of a similar nature for the Irish health service for the start of January 2020,and the start of January 2021 for comparison.
The HSE also talks about the availability of bed numbers in the private sector.
How many of these had to be accessed in the first week of January, considering the taxpayer is paying through the nose for having them on call.
These details should give us a clearer picture on how we compare with our EU partners.
Could Ireland’s over obsession with Christmas perhaps be somewhat to blame?
Anyone else read that as farting ?
@Maalouf: haha, now I am.
Much of this ‘new storm’ could have been prevented if people had only adhered to the guidelines for protecting themselves and others. I live in what’s become popular for walkers, cyclists, and dog walkers. There are also a cafe, a chipper, and a shop. In addition to outdoor seating for the shop and cafe, there is also a pub, which re-opened only briefly in December. People were crowded around the tables in the outdoor seating area. I’m out with my dog several times a day and since the first lockdown here in Ireland I’ve observed that the majority of people are NOT wearing masks and/or social distancing. I’ve recently lost a dear aunt, who lived alone and had been isolating herself for months, whose family ignored the guidelines. Her entire family group – children, their spouses, and her 4 adult grandchildren got the virus because of a birthday gathering for a granddaughter that they wanted her to attend (she was 87). She fell ill within a few days within day and died 2 days after being rushed to hospital by ambulance. Two others spent nearly 3 weeks on ventilators. This virus can be lethal and it angers me to see people flouting the guidelines. This was in America but it’s the same here. This only prolongs the pandemic and takes more lives. The slogan that ‘we’re all in this together’ is a joke. Only some of us are actually doing our part. Everyone needs to cop on.
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