Obama wants G-7 meeting on Russia

President Obama is asking for a G-7 meeting next week to consider additional sanctions on Russia, the White House said Tuesday.

The announcement came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty to annex the breakaway Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula in defiance of U.S. and European sanctions.

{mosads}“The meeting will focus on the situation in Ukraine and further steps that the G-7 may take to respond to developments and to support Ukraine,” National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said of the gathering at the Hague.

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom are the other Group of 7 members. Along with the United States, the countries have already announced they would suspend preparations for the upcoming G-8 summit in Sochi in protest of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.

Obama on Monday announced economic sanctions against top Russian and Crimean officials, and vowed that the U.S. stood ready to impose further penalties if the Kremlin did not change course. The European Union also indicated it was ready to move on sanctions and travel bans against Russian officials.

“We’ll continue to make clear to Russia that further provocations will achieve nothing except to further isolate Russia and diminish its place in the world,” Obama said. “The international community will continue to stand together to oppose any violations of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and continued Russian military intervention in Ukraine will only deepen Russia’s diplomatic isolation and exact a greater toll on the Russian economy.”