US President Donald Trump is ready to support a bill to tighten sanctions against Russia only if his powers to lift the restrictions are expanded.
This was reported on July 9 by Politico, citing sources in the US administration.
According to the publication, the bill in its current form allows the president to “remove 500 percent tariffs on countries buying Russian oil and uranium for 180 days“. Meanwhile, US Senator Lindsey Graham, who co-authored the bill, agreed to revise it in such a way that Trump would be able to cancel the tariffs with the permission of Congress.
“The administration wants the changes to strengthen the president's authority to cancel tariffs in such a way that Congress cannot stop Trump if he decides to lift the sanctions“, writes Politico. According to the newspaper, the head of state is “ready to sign the bill“ only if “he has more control“.
On July 8, Trump said that he was “very strongly” considering the possibility of approving the passage of the bill in question through Congress. This document was submitted in early April by a bipartisan group of Senate members. The main authors were Senators Graham and Richard Blumenthal. The initiative provides for secondary sanctions against Russia's trading partners. The senators' proposal included import duties of 500% on imports into the United States from countries that buy oil, gas, uranium and other goods from Russia.
Senator Rand Paul warned in an article published earlier on the Responsible Statecraft portal that “the country that will suffer the greatest damage“ as a result of the possible approval of this bill will be the United States itself - “both economically and strategically“.
Members of the US House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would impose sanctions on banks associated with the Russian energy sector, or on any Russian entities subject to US restrictions.
According to the document, the US Treasury Department must take measures to prevent the normal operation of any “foreign financial institutions that knowingly provide significant financial services“ to sanctioned Russian individuals and entities, as well as anyone working in the Russian energy sector. The bill was developed by members of the lower house of Congress Zach Nunn (Republican of Iowa) and Josh Gottheimer (Democrat of New Jersey).
According to Nunn and Gottheimer, the measures should be in force for either five years or until US President Donald Trump notifies Congress that Russia “has ceased destabilizing actions regarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine“. According to the bill, the American leader can suspend the restrictions stipulated in the document at his discretion, but for no more than 180 days.
On July 2, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova wished the United States to realize that anti-Russian sanctions are not working and “all this affects, first of all, those who initiated such an anti-Russian policy“. Commenting on Graham's words about the US plans to impose new sanctions against Russia, she said that “it is time for them to realize that Russia has adapted to the pressure of sanctions and to all of their packages, to all of their sanctions regimes“.