Good news is that there's no escalation on our end. Bad news is that this doesn't exactly counter the perception of "all bark, no bite."

Putin has to feel pretty smug about this.

Epcot and Disneyland and Universal Studios are also off limits.

Markets fear Russia has cut US treasury bill holding over Ukraine crisis.

Financial markets were on high alert last night over the Ukraine crisis amid speculation that the Kremlin had pulled its vast US treasury bill holdings out of New York.

News that more than $100bn had been shifted out of the US in the past week – at least three times more than at any time since the financial crisis – prompted fears that Russia is preparing for a western backlash in the form of sanctions and is moving its funds to safe havens beyond US influence.

The bills were transferred out of the US central bank's deposit vaults last week, as the Obama administration increased the threat of sanctions in response to the growing crisis in east Ukraine. Last year the most moved in a week was $32bn. Analysts said that if the switch can be credited to Russia, it represents about 80% of the country's holdings in US Treasury bonds.

The Russian central bank is likely to be behind the move, though wealthy Russian business figures are also expected to be concerned that Washington-imposed sanctions will freeze funds they have parked with the US central bank. Alexei Miller, the boss of energy firm Gazprom, and Igor Sechin, who runs oil company Rosneft, are likely to be among the many senior figures in Moscow adversely affected by any targeted sanctions imposed on Russia.

The switch came to light after the US central bank reported that its weekly custody holdings of Treasury bonds – investments it keeps on behalf of outside investors – dropped $105bn for the week ending 12 March to $2.85tn from $2.96tn.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/14/russia-us-treasury-bill-bonds-ukraine-sanctions

if they catch them sneaking into Disney World.

if they're caught in Knott's Berry Farm.

This is petulant at best.
Would be better to admit defeat and give that neocon trash Victoria Nuland her walking papers.

still holding office in the federal government these days...

people tend to forget the neo-con movement started in the democratic party ..
my understanding is that neo-con was originally defined as someone who believed in most of FDRs new deal (social security, etc) but strongly opposed kennedys ideas and johnsons great society(medicare, etc).

Learn something new everyday.
I had no idea.
I always thought Neocons sprouted from the PNAC group which was founded in part by Nuland's husband.

they were essentially just conservatives in the democratic party who decided maybe what FDR was trying to do wasn't so bad.. but after he died they opposed any other social advancements...
their acceptance of some of FDRs policies made the 'new' in front of their conservative label
these days they are also known and mostly known for their beliefs in foreign policy.. and a lot of them have been attacking social security as well these days.. RAY GUN kinda facilitated that change. Clinton was a traditional neo-conservative in a lot of respects, to be honest.

The US and the European Union retaliated over the Crimea referendum by targeting sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials on Monday, a move widely greeted with scepticism as "toothless".

The White House imposed sanctions against 11 named individuals: seven senior Russian politicians and officials and four Crimea-based separatist leaders accused of undermining the "democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine".

But the US pointedly avoided targeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, or key figures in his inner circle.

The EU imposed sanctions on 21 individuals but did not immediately disclose the names. There are divisions within Europe over how to respond to Russia, and this is reflected in the fact that action is being taken against less than two dozen from an original proposed list of 120.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/17/us-eu-sanctions-russia-ukraine-crimea-referendum