World

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW — US President Barack Obama announced sanctions on Thursday against prominent Russians including close allies of President Vladimir Putin, as Moscow raced to complete its annexation of Crimea and built up its forces in the region.

Moscow responded by announcing its own sanctions against senior US politicians in retaliation against visa bans and asset freezes imposed by Washington on its citizens, with the foreign ministry saying US action would “hit the United States like a boomerang”.

With Obama also clearing the way for possible sanctions on vital sectors of the Russian economy, Putin told Russian company bosses to bring their assets home to help the nation survive the sanctions and an economic downturn.

Obama said the action would also target a Russian bank, named by a senior administration official as Bank Rossiya, which is partly owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, a St. Petersburg banker whose association with Putin dates back to the early 1990s.

Speaking at the White House, Obama said Russia’s threats to southern and eastern areas of Ukraine — which like Crimea have large Russian-speaking populations — posed a serious risk of escalation of the crisis in the region.

“We’re imposing sanctions on more senior officials of the Russian government,” he said. “In addition, we are today sanctioning a number of other individuals with substantial resources and influence who provide material support to the Russian leadership, as well as a bank that provides material support to these individuals.”

Washington announced a first round of sanctions against 11 Russians and Ukrainians it said were involved with the Crimean annexation on Monday. The latest measures cover 20 people including Putin confidantes, the official said, adding that Bank Rossiya — which has $10 billion in assets — would be “frozen out of the dollar”.

Those on the Russian list included former presidential candidate Senator John McCain, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.

Obama said he had signed a new executive order expanding the US government’s authority to take measures against economic sectors. “Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community,” he said.

European Union leaders also gathered in Brussels to consider imposing their own further sanctions on Moscow.

Annexation

In Moscow, Russia’s State Duma, lower house of parliament, approved a treaty taking Crimea, captured from Ukraine, into the Russian Federation, even as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was in the Russian capital for talks on the crisis.

Some of Russia’s largest companies are registered abroad where they may benefit from lower tax rates but also may enjoy some distance from the Kremlin and feel beyond its reach.

Without referring to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region or to slowing economic growth, Putin said it would also be in the bosses’ interests to support the Russian economy.

“Russian companies should be registered on the territory of our nation, in our country and have a transparent ownership structure,” Putin told heads of Russia’s largest companies. “I am certain that this is also in your interests.”

In Kiev, the government said its border guards in Crimea, surrounded and outnumbered by Russian forces, had begun redeploying to the mainland after units loyal to Moscow stormed two Ukrainian military bases in the Crimean peninsula’s main town of Simferopol on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliament in Berlin that the 28 European Union leaders would show they are ready to ramp up punitive measures in a staged response against Russian officials and move to politically sensitive economic sanctions if goes further.

“The EU summit today and tomorrow will make clear that we are ready at any time to introduce Phase-3 measures if there is a worsening of the situation,” she said.

Some diplomats read her statement as an implicit recognition that Crimea was lost, and that only further steps by Russia to destabilise Ukraine or intervene in other post-Soviet republics would trigger sanctions that could hurt convalescing Western economies as well as Moscow’s.

Russian forces took control of the region in late February following the toppling of Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich by protests provoked by his decision to spurn a trade deal with the EU and seek closer ties with Moscow. People in Crimea voted overwhelmingly in a referendum last Sunday to join Russia.

Only one deputy in the State Duma voted against the treaty, while 443 lawmakers backed it, rising for the national anthem after the vote. The upper house is due to complete the formal ratification on Friday.

“From now on, and forever, the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol will be in the Russian Federation,” pro-Kremlin lawmaker Leonid Slutsky said in an address before the vote.

CARACAS — Venezuela upped pressure on the opposition Wednesday after weeks of protests, arresting two mayors including one in the town where they started and seeking a probe of a prominent anti-government lawmaker.

Authorities said the death toll from the protests rose to at least 30 after a policeman died trying to break up a protest in the western city of San Cristobal, where the demos began February 4.

They later spread to Caracas and many other cities, although they are now losing intensity.

But after days of relative calm, students called for more protests Thursday in a show of solidarity with the mayors.

President Nicolas Maduro’s government has been the target of daily protests fuelled by public anger over violent crime, inflation, shortages of such basic goods as toilet paper and further stoked by often heavy-handed police tactics.

It is all happening in the country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Venezuela’s top opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, whom Maduro beat in last year’s presidential election, said Maduro is “pouring gasoline on the fire, and he and only he will be responsible for whatever situation develops. Everyone should know that”.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said San Cristobal Mayor Daniel Ceballos has been detained on charges of fuelling “civilian uprising” and “supporting” violence in his city in the western state of Tachira.

Prosecutors “issued an arrest warrant... for [fomenting] civilian uprising”, which the Bolivarian Intelligence Service carried out, Rodriguez said on state television VTV.

“This is an act of justice... He has fostered and aided all the irrational violence first unleashed in the city of San Cristobal.”

Later, the supreme court said Enzo Scarano, mayor of the northern town of San Diego, had also been arrested and removed from his job. He is accused of “defiance” in his official duties.

Ceballos is the second leader of the opposition group Popular Will detained over the deadly protests, the biggest challenge yet to Maduro’s elected socialist government.

The group’s leader Leopoldo Lopez has been detained for over a month in a military facility near Caracas.

Lawmaker targeted 

In Caracas, congress voted to request a probe of prominent anti-government legislator Maria Corina Machado on suspicion of “instigating delinquency, treason, terrorism and homicide” stemming from the protests.

Pro-government legislators presented tapes of Machado’s telephone conversations as the basis for a probe. Her lawyers called the taping illegal.

If prosecutors do request a probe, they will have to go to the supreme court because Machado has immunity as a lawmaker.

She fired back on Twitter that “if they think that by threatening me and invading my immunity they are going to silence me, they do not know me”.

Machado, 46, has joined Lopez at the forefront of calling for street protests to force the departure of Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late populist icon Hugo Chavez, who died last year of cancer.

Elected in December, Ceballos says university students in his city who led protests against the government have been unjustly targeted, with at least one killed.

Maduro contends the protests are part of a “fascist” right-wing, US-backed plot to destabilise his year-old government.

CANBERRA — Australia said Thursday that two objects — one estimated at 24 metres long — had been spotted in the Indian Ocean, the “best lead we have” in the search for a Malaysian passenger jet.

Four search aircraft had been dispatched to the remote area of the southern Indian Ocean to check whether grainy satellite photos indicated debris from missing Malaysia Airlines MH370, as relatives of passengers huddled anxiously awaiting news.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament the images represented “new and credible information” but stressed that the link with flight MH370 had still to be confirmed.

“Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified,” Abbott said.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished in the early hours of March 8 after veering drastically off course over the South China Sea while en route to Beijing.

The reason for the deviation remains unknown although investigators believe it was the result of “deliberate action” by someone on board.

‘Awash with water’ 

Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) official John Young said the largest object sighted was assessed as being 24 metres long.

The two objects were in the southern Indian Ocean, about 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth.

“The indication to me is of objects that are of a reasonable size and probably awash with water and bobbing up and down over the surface,” Young said, calling it, “the best lead we have right now”.

“But we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them, to know whether it’s really meaningful or not.”

A merchant ship was expected to arrive in the vicinity around 0700 GMT and the Australian naval vessel HMAS Success, which is capable of retrieving any debris, is some days away.

Abbott warned that it may turn out the objects “are not related to the search for flight MH370”.

The international search for the plane has been marked by numerous false leads, but the latest photos are the first solid clue since the search area was significantly expanded last weekend to take in a vast part of the Indian Ocean.

The expansion, based on sketchy radar and satellite data, involved two vast search corridors, stretching south into the Indian Ocean and north over South and Central Asia.

Most analysts had favoured the southern corridor, saying it was unlikely the airliner passed undetected over nearly one dozen countries in the northern arc.

The satellite photos were taken on Sunday, meaning the objects have been subjected to four days of ocean drift, making them a “logistical nightmare” to locate, said Australian Defence Minister David Johnston.

“We are in a most isolated part of the world. In fact it probably doesn’t get, if I can be so bold, more isolated,” Johnston told Sky News Australia.

 Fundamental questions 

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein stressed the urgent need to verify and “corroborate” what the images showed.

Experts said the fact that Abbott himself had released the information added weight to its credibility.

But David Kaminski-Morrow, air transport editor with aviation magazine Flight International, said the history of false starts meant the information will be “treated with extreme caution”.

“It’s the best lead simply because, with so little information, it’s effectively the only lead,” he said.

Malaysian authorities have been criticised for their handling of the investigation, especially by relatives of those on board who have complained of confusing or non-existent information.

Nearly two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals.

China is paying “great attention” to the news from Australia, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement.

“The Chinese side is ready to make relevant arrangements based on the latest updates,” he added, without elaborating.

There was a mixed reaction to the news among families gathered at a Beijing hotel, who for two weeks have been clinging to the slim hope that the plane might have secretly landed somewhere.

Some simply refused to countenance a crash scenario.

“My son is still alive. My son is still alive. I don’t believe the news,” cried Wen Wancheng, 63, as he pushed his way through a throng of reporters outside the hotel room used to update relatives.

Others cited the previous sightings that went nowhere.

“I am sick of hearing there is new information only for it to be dismissed later,” one man told AFP angrily.

In Malaysia, there had been chaotic, emotional scenes Wednesday when a group of tearful Chinese relatives tried to gatecrash the government’s tightly controlled daily media briefing at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur airport.

If the plane is found, fundamental questions will remain as to what caused it to crash.

Malaysia has asked the FBI to help recover data deleted from a flight simulator belonging to the missing plane’s chief pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and removed from his home Saturday.

Zaharie, a 33-year veteran of the airline, was highly regarded by his peers. But suspicion has clouded the pilots since investigators concluded the plane’s communication systems were disabled manually before it changed course.

In his first on-camera comments on the mystery, US President Barack Obama, who is due to visit Malaysia next month, said he wanted anguished relatives to know Washington considers solving the riddle a “top priority”.

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine/MOSCOW — The United States warned Moscow it was on a “dark path” to isolation on Wednesday after Russian troops stormed Ukraine’s naval headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol and raised their flag.

The dramatic seizure came as Russia and the West dug in for a long confrontation over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, with the United States and Europe groping for ways to increase pressure on a defiant Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“As long as Russia continues on this dark path, they will face increasing political and economic isolation,” said US Vice President Joe Biden, referring to reports of armed attacks against Ukrainian military personnel in Crimea.

Biden was in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, part of a quick trip to reassure Baltic allies worried about what an emboldened Russia might mean for their nations. Lithuania, along with Estonia and Latvia, are NATO members.

“There is an attempt, using brutal force, to redraw borders of the European states and to destroy the post-war architecture of Europe,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon meets Putin in Moscow on Thursday and travels to Kiev on Friday. He will urge a peaceful end to a crisis that began when Ukraine’s president abandoned a trade pact with the European Union and turned instead to Moscow, prompting violent street protests that led to his overthrow.

Russian lawmakers raced to ratify a treaty making Crimea part of Russia by the end of the week, despite threats of further sanctions from Washington and Brussels.

The Russian military moved swiftly to neutralise any threat of armed resistance in Crimea.

“This morning they stormed the compound. They cut the gates open, but I heard no shooting,” said Oleksander Balanyuk, a captain in the navy, walking out of the compound in his uniform and carrying his belongings.

“This thing should have been solved politically. Now all I can do is stand here at the gate. There is nothing else I can do,” he told Reuters, appearing ashamed and downcast.

Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said the commander of the Ukrainian navy, Admiral Serhiy Haiduk, was driven away by what appeared to be Russian special forces.

In Washington, the White House condemned Russian moves to seize Ukrainian military installations, saying they are creating a dangerous situation. NATO accused Russia of trying to “redraw the map of Europe”.

Mixed feelings

Russia sent thousands of soldiers to Crimea in the buildup to a weekend referendum in which the Russian-majority region voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Moscow, reflecting national loyalties and hopes of higher wages.

But there is unease among pro-Ukrainian Crimeans who have complained about the heavy armed presence across the region.

“I was born here, my family is here, I have a job here and I am not going anywhere unless there is an all-out military conflict,” said Viktor, a 23-year-old salesman. “It is my home but things will not be the same any more.”

A few hundred metres away, the local authorities attached new, Russian letters spelling “State Council of the Crimean Republic” on the building of the local assembly.

Ukrainian security chief Andriy Parubiy said the Kiev government would urge the United Nations to declare Crimea a demilitarised zone.

“The Ukrainian government will immediately appeal to the United Nations to recognise Crimea as a demilitarised zone and take necessary measures for Russian forces to leave Crimea and prepare conditions for redeployment of Ukrainian forces,” Parubiy said.

Ukraine announced plans to introduce visas for Russians, and Russia said it might respond in kind.

Putin said his move to annex Crimea was justified by “fascists” in Kiev who overthrew pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich last month.

Ukraine and Western governments have dismissed the referendum as a sham, and say there is no justification for Putin’s actions.

Germany makes move

Germany’s Cabinet approved EU plans for closer political cooperation with Ukraine, a government source said, clearing the way for Chancellor Angela Merkel to sign part of a so-called association agreement at an EU summit later this week.

The 28-member bloc is expected to sign a more far-reaching trade accord with Ukraine later.

But maintaining aggressive rhetoric reminiscent of the Cold War, Russia accused Western states of violating a pledge to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and political independence under a 1994 security assurance agreement, saying they had “indulged a coup d’etat” that ousted Yanukovich.

Moscow, which has said it will retaliate for so far largely symbolic Western sanctions targeting Russian officials, announced on Wednesday it was closing its military facilities to a European security watchdog for the rest of the year.

The Russian defence ministry was quoted as saying the signatories of a 2011 Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreement had exhausted their quotas to inspect Russian military facilities and a planned inspection in the coming days would be the last.

Further sanctions?

Biden said in Warsaw on Tuesday the United States may run more ground and naval military exercises to help Baltic states near Russia beef up their capacity after what he called Putin’s “land grab” in Ukraine.

The Truxtun, a US guided-missile destroyer, started a one-day military exercise with the Bulgarian and Romanian navies in the Black Sea on Wednesday, a US naval forces official said.

Washington and Brussels said further sanctions would follow the visa bans and asset freezes imposed so far on a handful of Russian and Crimean officials, drawing derision from Moscow.

On a visit to Japan, which has joined the Western chorus of condemnation of Moscow’s action, close Putin ally Igor Sechin, CEO of Russian oil major Rosneft, said expanding sanctions would only aggravate the crisis.

European Union leaders will consider widening the number of people targeted by personal sanctions when they meet on Thursday and Friday, diplomats said, as well as signing the political part of an association agreement with Ukraine’s interim government.

EU officials say they have identified more than 100 potential targets. Some media reports say Sechin and the head of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom are on the wider list.

ANKARA — President Abdullah Gul has dismissed suggestions that outside forces are conspiring against Turkey, openly contradicting Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s assertions that a corruption scandal is part of a foreign-backed plot to undermine him.

The graft inquiry swirling around Erdogan’s government has grown into the biggest challenge of his 11-year-rule. He has repeatedly cast it as a scheme by political enemies at home and abroad to damage him ahead of March 30 local elections.

“I don’t accept allegations about foreign powers and I don’t find them right... I don’t believe in these conspiracy theories as if there are some people trying to destroy Turkey,” the Hurriyet newspaper quoted Gul as telling reporters during a visit to Denmark.

“Of course Turkey has its long-standing opponents in the world. Certain groups have praised our work for the past 10 years... Now that they are criticising us, why is this an issue? These types of comments are for third world countries,” he said.

Turkey’s rapid growth into a major emerging market has largely been based on the stability brought by Erdogan’s firm rule over the last decade. But the past several months of political uncertainty have unnerved investors, helping send the lira currency down sharply.

Gul co-founded the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party with Erdogan and has remained a close ally. But he is viewed as a more conciliatory figure than the combative prime minister and their relations have at times appeared strained.

“The political atmosphere we are in is not making any of us happy. It doesn’t make me happy. I am both troubled and saddened by the things we are going through,” Gul was quoted as saying.

Gul has been under growing pressure from both within and outside Turkey to calm tensions generated by the graft scandal and is seen as a potential successor to Erdogan as prime minister and head of the AK Party, should Erdogan decide to run for the presidency in an August vote.

He and Erdogan had appeared to have closed ranks since the graft scandal erupted in December, with Gul approving controversial laws tightening Internet controls and giving the government greater influence over the judiciary — moves seen by Erdogan’s critics as an authoritarian response to the probe.

Election impact

The long-running investigation became public on December 17 when police detained the sons of three Cabinet ministers and businessmen close to Erdogan. The three ministers resigned a week later, while others were removed in a Cabinet reshuffle.

Parliament, currently in recess for the local election campaign period, will reconvene for an extraordinary session on Wednesday, demanded by the opposition, to hear prosecutors’ files on the allegations against four of the former ministers.

Last week, a Twitter account behind a string of leaks in the scandal posted what it presented as prosecutors’ files accusing the former ministers of involvement with an Iranian businessman in a bribery and smuggling racket.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the documents and the former ministers have denied any wrongdoing.

Erdogan says his former ally, US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, orchestrated the corruption investigation through a “parallel state” of his supporters in the judiciary and police. Gulen denies the allegations.

Erdogan has responded by reassigning thousands of police officers and hundreds of judges and prosecutors, and driving through the legislation approved by Gul tightening controls of the judiciary and Internet.

Members of parliament have immunity from prosecution, but opposition parties are expected to call on Wednesday for the former ministers to face trial. Rival MPs have previously come to blows over the corruption allegations.

The impact of the graft probe on Turkey’s electorate remains unclear, according to widely diverging opinion polls prepared in the run-up to the March 30 elections.

Analysts say the AK Party’s core support has held up and that it is on course to remain the biggest party, although its predicted share of the vote ranges from 30 to 50 per cent.

The latest survey from one pollster, Konsensus, showed the AK Party would narrowly win the mayoral race in Istanbul but cede control of the capital Ankara to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for the first time since coming to power in 2002.

SONAR, another pollster, forecast the AK Party would keep control of both of Turkey’s largest cities but fail to seize control of the western city of Izmir, a stronghold of the CHP.

KUALA LUMPUR — Angry Chinese relatives tried to gatecrash Malaysia’s tightly controlled daily media briefing on the missing plane Wednesday in chaotic scenes underlining the frustrations surrounding the 12-day search.

Shouting and crying, a handful of relatives of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight 370 unfurled a protest banner reading “Give us back our families”. They accused Malaysian authorities of withholding information and doing too little to find the plane.

The dramatic protest unfolded just before Malaysian officials arrived for the briefing, in which they announced no progress in determining what befell the plane.

“They give different messages every day. Where’s the flight now? We can’t stand it anymore!” one woman wailed as reporters mobbed her and other relatives.

Shortly afterwards, Malaysia staged a shorter-than-usual press conference during which officials indicated the investigation was zooming in closer on the pilot.

Authorities said investigators had discovered that data had been deleted from the home flight simulator of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah about one month before the plane vanished early on March 8. But they cautioned against a rush to judgement.

“Some data had been deleted from the simulator, and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing,” said Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

Officials gave no details on the simulator data.

Zaharie, a 33-year veteran of the airline, was highly regarded by his peers. But suspicion has clouded him since investigators concluded that the plane’s communication systems were manually disabled and the Boeing 777 was deliberately diverted by a skilled aviator.

Increasingly agitated 

Hishammuddin said Malaysia’s own investigations, and background checks received from other countries, had so far raised no indications that any of the plane’s 227 passengers might have been responsible.

“So far, no information of significance on any passengers has been found,” he said.

The aircraft also carried 12 crew.

The international quest to find the jet came up empty again, 12 days after it mysteriously vanished, with the Malaysian government acknowledging red tape was slowing a massive search.

Relatives of passengers have become increasingly agitated at the failure of the airline and Malaysian government to explain what happened, especially the families of the 153 Chinese nationals aboard.

Security had to intervene to stop the uproar at the press venue in a hotel near Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Family members were bundled out of the room, with two of them physically carried out, still protesting and shouting.

“I fully understand what they’re going through. Emotions are high,” Hishammuddin said.

But he had no progress to report from an international search across a huge arc of land and sea the size of Australia.

Indonesia acknowledged earlier on Wednesday it had only just provided clearance for surveillance aircraft from Australia, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia to overfly its territory, while saying its own vessels were awaiting instructions from Kuala Lumpur.

India’s navy has suspended its search in the Andaman Sea for several days, citing a lack of instructions.

‘Awaiting clearance’

Hishammuddin confirmed that some search resources were “awaiting diplomatic clearance to begin operations”.

“Once we receive formal clearance, we can then speed up the deployment of assets along the search corridors,” he said.

The clock is ticking down on the 30 days during which the aircraft black box will transmit a signal.

In a further sign of miscommunication, the Thai air force revealed Wednesday that its military radar had picked up what appeared to be Flight MH370 just minutes after it was mysteriously diverted.

It went unreported by the Thai military for nine days and only emerged following a check of radar logs on Monday.

Air Marshal Monthon Suchookornat said the same plane was picked up again later swinging north and disappearing over the Andaman Sea, but Thailand saw no need to notify Malaysia.

Malaysia has been criticised for not responding quickly to radar indications that the plane veered north and west, losing valuable time in tracking it.

Cooperation elusive 

Malaysia has sought help including radar and satellite analysis, and surveillance vessels and aircraft, from 26 countries.

The two huge search corridors — based on satellite data that detected the plane more than seven hours after —running south in an arc across the Indian Ocean, and another stretching from northern Thailand into South and Central Asia.

But many of the countries involved are not used to such close cooperation — especially when it comes to sharing possibly sensitive data.

Paul Yap, an aviation lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, said Malaysia faced a giant challenge coordinating the search and getting partners to share sensitive data that could divulge a country’s radar capabilities.

“I wouldn’t like to be in Malaysia’s shoes,” Yap said.

MOSCOW/KIEV — Defying Ukrainian protests and Western sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty in Moscow on Tuesday making Crimea part of Russia again but said he did not plan to seize any other regions of Ukraine.

On the peninsula, a Ukrainian serviceman was killed when a base still held by Kiev came under attack in the main town of Simferopol, the first death in Crimea from a military clash since Russia seized control three weeks ago.

Kiev said the attackers had been wearing Russian military uniforms and responded by authorising its soldiers in Crimea to use weapons to protect their lives, reversing previous orders that they should avoid using arms against attack.

In a fiercely patriotic address to a joint session of parliament in the Kremlin, punctuated by standing ovations, cheers and tears, Putin said Crimea’s disputed referendum vote on Sunday, held under Russian military occupation, had shown the overwhelming will of the people to be reunited with Russia.

As the Russian national anthem played, Putin and Crimean leaders signed a treaty to make Ukraine’s region part of the Russian Federation, declaring: “In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia.” Parliament is expected to begin ratifying the treaty within days.

Putin later told a flag-waving rally in Red Square beneath the walls of the Kremlin, near where Soviet politburo leaders once took the salute at communist May Day parades, that Crimea has returned to “home port”.

Russian forces took control of the Black Sea peninsula in late February following the toppling of Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by protests provoked by his decision to spurn a trade deal with the European Union last November and seek closer ties with Russia. People in Crimea voted overwhelmingly in the weekend referendum to join Russia.

Ukrainian and Russian troops have avoided violent confrontations, with Kiev anxious to avoid giving Moscow a reason for overrunning its bases in Crimea.

However, Ukraine’s pro-Western Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk denounced Tuesday’s death of the serviceman as a “war crime” and called for international talks to prevent an escalation of the conflict.

A defence ministry statement said the dead man had been shot while manning a tower, adding that the attackers in Russian uniforms were holding the base commander in a nearby building. A Russian defence ministry spokesman declined immediate comment.

Interfax Ukraine news agency, quoting Crimean police, said a member of the pro-Russian “self-defence forces” was also killed in the incident. The report could not immediately be confirmed.

In Kiev, the press service of Acting President Oleksander Turchinov announced new military orders. “In connection with the death of a Ukrainian serviceman ... Ukrainian troops in Crimea have been allowed to use weapons to defend and protect the lives of Ukrainian servicemen,” the order issued by the defence ministry said.

Turchinov also accused Russia of annexing Crimea in actions reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s takeover of Austria and Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland in the run-up to World War II.

Hostile reaction

Putin’s speech drew immediate hostile reaction in Kiev and the West.

US Vice President Joe Biden called Moscow’s action a “landgrab” and on a visit to Poland stressed Washington’s commitment to defending the security of NATO allies on Russian borders.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Russia’s move was unacceptable to the international community, while Britain suspended military cooperation with Russia.

“It is completely unacceptable for Russia to use force to change borders, on the basis of a sham referendum held at the barrel of a Russian gun,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said, threatening Putin with “more serious consequences”.

In his speech, the Russian leader lambasted Western nations for what he called hypocrisy, saying they had endorsed Kosovo’s right to self-determination and independence from Serbia but now denied Crimeans the same rights.

“You cannot call the same thing black today and white tomorrow,” Putin declared, saying that while he did not seek conflict with the West, Western partners had “crossed the line” over Ukraine and behaved “irresponsibly”.

Ukraine’s new leaders, in power since the overthrow of Yanukovych, included “neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites”, he added.

Putin tried to reassure Ukrainians that Moscow did not seek any further division of their country. Fears have been expressed in Kiev that Russia might move on the Russian-speaking eastern parts of Ukraine, where there has been tension between some Russian speakers and the new authorities.

“Don’t believe those who try to frighten you with Russia and who scream that other regions will follow after Crimea,” Putin said. “We do not want a partition of Ukraine.”

Putin said Russian forces in Crimea had taken great care to avoid any bloodshed, contrasting it with NATO’s 1999 campaign to drive Serbian forces out of Kosovo. Reinforcements had remained within the treaty limit of 25,000 troops in the area, he said.

Setting out Moscow’s view of the events that led to the overthrow of Yanukovych last month, Putin said the “so-called authorities” in Kiev had stolen power in a coup, opening the way for extremists who would stop at nothing.

NATO sailors

Making clear Russia’s concern at the possibility of the US-led NATO military alliance expanding into Ukraine, he declared: “I do not want to be welcomed in Sevastopol [Crimean home of Russia’s Black Sea fleet] by NATO sailors.”

Moscow’s seizure of Crimea has caused the most serious East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War, and Putin showed no sign of backing down despite the threat of tougher sanctions.

In Crimea, where his speech and the signing ceremony were broadcast live, his words were greeted with rapture by some.

“Putin’s done what our hearts were longing for,” said Natalia, a pensioner who sells snacks in a kiosk in the centre of Simferopol. “This finally brings things back to what they should be after all those years. For me, for my family, there can be no bigger joy, for us this is sacred.”

Yatseniuk earlier tried to reassure Moscow on two of its main concerns, saying in a televised address delivered in Russian that Kiev was not seeking to join NATO and would disarm Ukrainian nationalist militias.

On Monday, the United States and the EU imposed sanctions on a handful of officials from Russia and Ukraine accused of involvement in Moscow’s seizure of the Black Sea peninsula, the majority of whose two million residents are ethnic Russians.

Russian politicians responded to the sanctions with defiance. The State Duma, or lower house, adopted a statement urging Washington and Brussels to extend the visa ban and asset freeze to all its members.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov threatened retaliation. “The sanctions introduced by the United States and the European Union are unacceptable and will not remain without consequences,” the foreign ministry said in a statement about a telephone call Lavrov made to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The White House said leaders of the world’s leading industrial democracies would hold a Group of Seven meeting without Russia on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in The Hague next week to consider further responses to the crisis.

Despite strongly worded condemnations, Western nations have been cautious in their first practical steps against Moscow, both to leave the door open for a diplomatic solution and out of reluctance to endanger the world economic recovery.

Russian stocks gained another 2 per cent after rallying strongly on Monday, and the ruble rose after Putin said Russia would not seek to further divide Ukraine. Investors noted the initial sanctions did not target businesses or executives.

But Russia said its long-delayed privatisation programme could be postponed again.

Washington and Brussels have said future punitive measures could affect the economy, energy and arms contracts as well as the private wealth of magnates close to Putin.

BANGKOK — Thailand announced Tuesday the end of a nearly two-month-old state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas, hoping to lure back foreign visitors following an easing of deadly political protests.

The use of emergency rule dealt a heavy blow to Thailand’s key tourism industry during what is usually peak season, and also raised fears of a drop in foreign investment.

The state of emergency will be replaced by another special law, the Internal Security Act, with effect from Wednesday until April 30, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s office announced.

“We’re confident that we can handle the situation so the Cabinet agreed to revoke the state of emergency as requested by many parties,” Yingluck told reporters.

“The cancellation is to build confidence in the economy and the tourism sector,” she said.

Thailand’s international tourist arrivals were down roughly 8 per cent last month from a year earlier, with Bangkok’s airports seeing a drop of more than 18 per cent in total, according to official figures.

Yingluck has faced more than four months of political protests aimed at ousting her elected government and installing an unelected “people’s council” to oversee reforms.

The state of emergency was introduced in the run-up to a February 2 general election called by the premier in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the crisis.

Political bloodshed, often targeting protesters, has left 23 people dead and hundreds wounded in recent months, including in grenade attacks and shootings.

However, attendance at the demonstrations has fallen sharply in recent weeks, while the introduction of emergency rule failed to prevent protesters disrupting the February election.

The demonstrators late last month moved to scale back their rallies, consolidating at one site in Bangkok’s Lumpini Park as they ended their so-called “Bangkok shutdown”, which had seen them occupy key road intersections in the city.

Thailand has been periodically rocked by mass demonstrations staged by rival protest groups since a military coup in 2006 that ousted then-premier Thaksin Shinawatra — Yingluck’s brother.

Her opponents say she is a puppet for Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon-turned-politician, who fled overseas in 2008 to avoid jail for a corruption conviction.

The February election has not been completed in some areas because of disruption by the protests, leaving Yingluck’s government in a caretaker role with limited powers.

Pro-Thaksin parties won every previous election for more than a decade, helped by strong support in the northern half of the kingdom.

But many southerners and Bangkok residents accuse the Shinawatra family of using taxpayers’ money to buy the loyalty of rural voters through populist policies.

The authorities were unable to use the security powers offered by the state of emergency in any case, after a civil court last month ordered the government not to use regulations issued under the decree.

The court banned the use of force against the protesters, after attempts by riot police to clear areas occupied for weeks by opposition demonstrators sparked deadly clashes.

Yingluck has suffered a series of legal defeats by the courts, which have been accused by government supporters of colluding with the opposition to try to oust the premier.

Yingluck also faces negligence charges that could lead to her removal from office, linked to a flagship rice farm subsidy scheme that her critics say is riddled with corruption.

Thailand’s central bank last week reduced its official interest rate to 2 per cent, the lowest level in three years, warning that risks to economic growth had risen in the wake of the political crisis.

The Southeast Asian nation has been dubbed “Teflon Thailand” for its ability to recover quickly from numerous economic setbacks including political violence.

Dozens of foreign governments issued travel warnings in response to the latest round of turmoil, with tourists advised to avoid protest sites and take extra care in Bangkok.

Thailand’s tourism sector needs about three months to bounce back following the lifting of emergency rule, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand.

KUALA LUMPUR — An international land and sea search for a missing Malaysian jetliner is covering an area the size of Australia, authorities said on Tuesday, but police and intelligence agencies have yet to establish a clear motive to explain its disappearance.

Investigators are convinced that someone with deep knowledge of the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial navigation diverted Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, carrying 12 crew and 227 mainly Chinese passengers, perhaps thousands of kilometres off its scheduled course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

But intensive background checks of everyone aboard have so far failed to find anyone with a known political or criminal motive to hijack or deliberately crash the plane, Western security sources and Chinese authorities said.

Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference the “unique, unprecedented” search covered a total area of 7.68 million sq.km., from central Asia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian air traffic control screens off Malaysia’s east coast less than an hour after take-off early on March 8.

Investigators piecing together patchy data from military radar and satellites believe that someone turned off the aircraft’s identifying transponder and ACARS system, which transmits maintenance data, and turned west, re-crossing the Malay Peninsula and following a commercial aviation route towards India.

Malaysian officials have backtracked on the exact sequence of events — they are now unsure whether the ACARS system was shut down before or after the last radio message was heard from the cockpit — but said that did not make a material difference.

“This does not change our belief, as stated, that up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, the aircraft’s movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane,” said Hishammuddin. “That remains the position of the investigating team.”

Background checks clean

China’s ambassador to Malaysia said his country had carried out a detailed probe into its nationals aboard the flight and could rule out their involvement.

US and European security sources said efforts by various governments to investigate the backgrounds of everyone on the flight had not, as of Monday, turned up links to militant groups or anything else that could explain the jet’s disappearance.

A European diplomat in Kuala Lumpur also said trawls through the passenger manifest had come up blank.

One source familiar with US inquiries said the pilots were being studied because of the technical knowledge needed to disable the aircraft’s communications systems.

The New York Times cited senior US officials as saying that the first turn back to the west was likely programmed into the aircraft’s flight computer, rather than being executed manually, by someone knowledgeable about aircraft systems.

Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told Tuesday’s daily news conference that that was “speculation”, adding: “Once you are in the aircraft, anything is possible.”

Malaysian officials said on Monday that suicide by the pilot or co-pilot was a line of inquiry, although they stressed that it was only one of the possibilities under investigation.

Malaysian police have searched the homes of the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, both in middle-class suburbs of Kuala Lumpur close to the airport.

Among the items taken for examination was a flight simulator Zaharie had built in his home.

A senior police officer with direct knowledge of the investigation said the programmes from the pilot’s simulator included Indian Ocean runways in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Diego Garcia and southern India, although he added that US and European runways also featured.

“Generally these flight simulators show hundreds or even thousands of runways,” the officer said.

“What we are trying to see is what were the runways that were frequently used. We also need to see what routes the pilot had been assigned to before. This will take time, so people cannot jump the gun just yet.”

‘Needle in a haystack’

Thailand said on Tuesday a re-examination of its military radar data had picked up the plane re-tracing its route across Peninsular Malaysia. The Thai military had previously said it had not detected any sign of the plane.

What happened next is less certain. The plane may have flown for another six hours or more after dropping off Malaysian military radar about 322km northwest of Penang Island.

But the satellite signals that provide the only clues were not intended to work as locators. The best they can do is place the plane in one of two broad arcs — one stretching from Laos up to the Caspian, the other from west of Indonesia down to the Indian Ocean off Australia — when the last signal was picked up.

Malaysia has asked countries along both corridors, as well as others with satellite capabilities, to re-examine their data to try to narrow the search area, Hishammuddin said.

China, which, with Kazakhstan, is leading the search in the northern corridor, said on Tuesday it had deployed 21 satellites to scour its territory.

“In accordance with Malaysia’s request, we are mobilising satellites and radar to search over the Chinese section of the northern corridor, which the Malaysians say the plane may have flown over,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

Australia, which is leading the southernmost leg of the search, said it had shrunk its search field based on satellite tracking data, and analysis of weather and currents, but that it still covered 600,000 sq.km.

“A needle in a haystack remains a good analogy,” John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), told reporters.

“The aircraft could have gone north or south, and if it went south, this is AMSA’s best estimate of where we should look with the few resources we have at our disposal for such a search.”

The US navy was sending a P-8A Poseidon, its most advanced maritime surveillance aircraft, to Perth, in Western Australia, to assist with the search.

The disappearance of the plane was a major topic of conversation at the International Society of Transport Air Trading in San Diego, an annual gathering of 1,600 airplane makers, buyers and lessors.

“The people that I deal with are looking at this with great concern — it appears considerable efforts may have gone into cloaking the aircraft,” said Robert Agnew, chief executive of aviation consultants Morten Beyer & Agnew.

KIEV — Crimea’s declaration of independence Monday from Ukraine triggered the toughest Western sanctions against Russia since the Cold War — with Washington and the European Union retaliating with asset freezes and travel bans and US President Barack Obama vowing to “increase the cost” if the Kremlin does not back down.

Ukraine’s turmoil has become Europe’s most severe security crisis in years and tensions have been high since Russian troops seized control of Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula that has now decided to merge with Russia. Russian troops are also massed near the border with Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s acting president raised tensions on the ground by calling for the activation of some 20,000 military reservists and volunteers across the country and for the mobilisation of another 20,000 in the recently formed national guard.

In the Crimean capital of Simferopol, ethnic Russians applauded the Sunday referendum that overwhelmingly called for secession and for joining Russia. Masked men in body armour blocked access for most journalists to the parliament session that declared independence, but the city otherwise appeared to go about its business normally.

The US, EU and Ukraine’s new government do not recognise the referendum held Sunday in Crimea, which was called hastily as Ukraine’s political crisis deepened with the ouster of pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych following months of protests and sporadic bloodshed. In addition to calling the vote itself illegal, the Obama administration said there were “massive anomalies” in balloting that returned a 97 per cent “yes” vote for joining Russia.

Obama warned that Russia could face more financial punishment.

“If Russia continues to interfere in Ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions,” Obama said.

One of the top Russian officials hit by sanctions mocked Obama.

“Comrade Obama, what should those who have neither accounts nor property abroad do? Have you not thought about it?” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted. “I think the decree of the president of the United States was written by some joker.”

Moscow considers the vote legitimate and Russian President Vladimir Putin was to address both houses of parliament Tuesday on the Crimean situation.

In Kiev, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov vowed that Ukraine will not give up Crimea.

“We are ready for negotiations, but we will never resign ourselves to the annexation of our land,” a somber-faced Turchynov said in a televised address to the nation. “We will do everything in order to avoid war and the loss of human lives. We will be doing everything to solve the conflict through diplomatic means. But the military threat to our state is real.”

The Crimean referendum could also encourage rising pro-Russian sentiment in Ukraine’s east and lead to further divisions in this nation of 46 million.

A delegation of Crimean lawmakers was set to travel to Moscow on Monday for negotiations on how to proceed. Russian lawmakers have suggested that formally annexing Crimea is almost certain — with one saying it could happen within days.

“We came back home to Mother Russia. We came back home, Russia is our home,” said Nikolay Drozdenko, a resident in Sevastopol, the key Crimean port where Russia leases a naval base from Ukraine.

The Crimean parliament declared that all Ukrainian state property on the peninsula will be nationalised and become the property of the Crimean Republic. It gave no further details. Lawmakers also asked the United Nations and other nations to recognise it and began work on setting up a central bank with $30 million in support from Russia.

The United States announced sanctions against seven Russian officials, including Rogozin, Putin’s close ally Valentina Matvienko who is speaker of the upper house of parliament and Vladislav Surkov, one of Putin’s top ideological aides. The Treasury Department also targeted Yanukovych, Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov and two other top figures.

The EU’s foreign ministers slapped travel bans and asset freezes against 21 officials from Russia and Ukraine following Crimea’s referendum. The ministers did not immediately release the names and nationalities of those targeted by the sanctions.

“We need to show solidarity with Ukraine and therefore Russia leaves us no choice,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters in Brussels before the vote. “The ‘Anschluss’ of Crimea cannot rest without a response from the international community.”

He was referring to Nazi Germany’s forceful annexation of Austria.

But markets appeared to signal that the Western sanctions lacked punch — with bourses both in Russia and Europe rising sharply on relief that they won’t hit trade of business ties.

“So far the sanctions seem fairly toothless and much less severe than had been expected last week,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com. “From the market’s perspective, the biggest risk was that the referendum would trigger tough sanctions against Russia that could lead to another Cold War.”

Moscow, meanwhile, called on Ukraine to become a federal state as a way of resolving the polarisation between Ukraine’s western regions — which favour closer ties with the 28-nation EU — and its eastern areas, which have long ties to Russia.

In a statement Monday, Russia’s foreign ministry urged Ukraine’s parliament to call a constitutional assembly that could draft a new constitution to make the country federal, handing more power to its regions. It also said country should adopt a “neutral political and military status”, a demand reflecting Moscow’s concern about the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO and possibly integrating closer politically and economically with the EU.

Russia is also pushing for Russian to become one of Ukraine’s state languages alongside Ukrainian.

In Kiev, Ukraine’s new government dismissed Russia’s proposal Monday as unacceptable, saying it “looks like an ultimatum”.

The new government in Kiev was established after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia last month after three months of protests culminated in deadly clashes.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya visited NATO headquarters in Brussels to request technical equipment to deal with the secession of Crimea and the Russian incursion there.

NATO said in a statement that the alliance was determined to boost its cooperation with Ukraine, including “increased ties with Ukraine’s political and military leadership”.