‘Thugs and bullies’: Nations sanction Russia over Ukraine

By FOSTER KLUG
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — World leaders are backing up their condemnation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine with action, announcing financial sanctions, banning trade with Ukrainian separatist regions and halting Russian bond distribution. But even as they imposed penalties on Wednesday meant to pressure Moscow to seek diplomacy over war, nations in Asia and the Pacific also prepared for both economic pain, in the form of cuts to traditional energy supply lines, and possible retaliation from Russian cyberattacks. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced targeted financial sanctions and travel bans and said Russia was “behaving like thugs and bullies, and they should be called out as thugs and bullies.”