- Dec 12, 2000
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Better late than never, right? Now, how about signing off on the sanctions passed by both houses of Congress?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/us/politics/russia-sanctions-executive-order.html
President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on Russia, responding to growing pressure from Congress to further punish Moscow after a nerve agent attack last year against a former Russian spy in Britain.
It is the second round of sanctions by the administration after a botched attempt in March 2018 to fatally poison a former Russian military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, in the British town of Salisbury.
The attack put Mr. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, into a coma, and sickened at least three others. One of them, a British woman named Dawn Sturgess, died.
Mr. Trump has been reluctant to take punitive actions against Russia, instead seeking better relations with Moscow despite its well-documented interference in the 2016 election.
But in recent weeks, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have criticized his administration’s delay in taking what they have called legally mandated action to follow up on sanctions imposed last August.
...
The law, known as the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, also requires the administration to certify that a country found to have employed such weapons has stopped their use, has provided assurances it will not do so again and has allowed for on-site inspections. Because Russia continues to maintain that it was not behind the botched poisoning, the State Department notified Congress in November that it could not make such a determination.
That the Trump administration did not follow through with the additional penalties prescribed by law frustrated lawmakers. In May, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, Andrea Thompson, told a Senate panel that the State Department had “teed up” the additional sanctions.
“We’ve been extremely vocal and active in pushing back on Russia’s heinous attack on the Skripals,” Ms. Thompson insisted, suggesting that the slow action on sanctions was “part of a larger Russia strategy.”
On Monday, the top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a joint letter to the White House threatening new congressional action to force the administration’s hand.
“Failure by the administration to respond to Russia’s unabashed aggression is unacceptable and would necessitate that Congress take corrective action,” wrote the members, Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York, and Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas.
The law provided the administration with numerous sanctions to choose from. The executive order released by the White House on Thursday banned loans or other assistance to Russia by international financial institutions and prohibited most loans from American banks to Russia’s government.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/us/politics/russia-sanctions-executive-order.html
President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on Russia, responding to growing pressure from Congress to further punish Moscow after a nerve agent attack last year against a former Russian spy in Britain.
It is the second round of sanctions by the administration after a botched attempt in March 2018 to fatally poison a former Russian military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, in the British town of Salisbury.
The attack put Mr. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, into a coma, and sickened at least three others. One of them, a British woman named Dawn Sturgess, died.
Mr. Trump has been reluctant to take punitive actions against Russia, instead seeking better relations with Moscow despite its well-documented interference in the 2016 election.
But in recent weeks, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have criticized his administration’s delay in taking what they have called legally mandated action to follow up on sanctions imposed last August.
...
The law, known as the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, also requires the administration to certify that a country found to have employed such weapons has stopped their use, has provided assurances it will not do so again and has allowed for on-site inspections. Because Russia continues to maintain that it was not behind the botched poisoning, the State Department notified Congress in November that it could not make such a determination.
That the Trump administration did not follow through with the additional penalties prescribed by law frustrated lawmakers. In May, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, Andrea Thompson, told a Senate panel that the State Department had “teed up” the additional sanctions.
“We’ve been extremely vocal and active in pushing back on Russia’s heinous attack on the Skripals,” Ms. Thompson insisted, suggesting that the slow action on sanctions was “part of a larger Russia strategy.”
On Monday, the top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a joint letter to the White House threatening new congressional action to force the administration’s hand.
“Failure by the administration to respond to Russia’s unabashed aggression is unacceptable and would necessitate that Congress take corrective action,” wrote the members, Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York, and Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas.
The law provided the administration with numerous sanctions to choose from. The executive order released by the White House on Thursday banned loans or other assistance to Russia by international financial institutions and prohibited most loans from American banks to Russia’s government.
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