US President Donald Trump is ready to sign a bill to tighten sanctions on Russia if the final decision on it remains his responsibility.
This was stated by a senior White House official to Reuters on Monday.
“It has always been important to the White House and the president that the sanctions package contain assurances that the final decision-making on sanctions is the president. So if that is included in the bill, I think the president would consider signing it“, the source said.
“He would sign it“, the White House official repeated, referring to the bill. “He signaled that last night,” the official added, suggesting that Trump had effectively approved the legislative initiative.
At the same time, the source stressed that negotiations between Russia and the United States to resolve the conflict in Ukraine are ongoing. “We’re definitely still working on it. It just hasn’t been on the forefront because we have so much work to do,” he noted.
The bill in question was introduced in early April by a bipartisan group of Senate members. The main sponsors were Senators Lindsey Graham (Republican of South Carolina) and Richard Blumenthal (Democrat of Connecticut). The initiative includes secondary sanctions against Russia’s trading partners. The lawmakers’ proposal included import duties of 500% on imports into the United States from countries that buy oil, gas, uranium and other goods from Russia.