Today, August 2, Donald trump has put his signature to the bill providing introduction of new sanctions against Russia because of its intervention in the US presidential election in 2016. We will remind, last week the House of representatives almost unanimously voted for the adoption of new sanctions: 419 congressmen voted «for» and only three – «against».
Now the President can’t single-handedly reduce or lift sanctions against the Russian Federation, he will have to coordinate its decision with Congress. Will remain inviolate and sanctions, introduced at Barack Obama.
It is interesting that recently the U.S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson admitted to journalists that the adoption of new sanctions only hurt attempts to restore relations with Russia.
“Activities of the Congress regarding the imposition of these sanctions and the way they have used that are not happy with me, nor the President. We have made it clear that I don’t think it will be useful for our efforts,” said Tillerson.
The presidential administration also expressed its concern that the sanctions could negatively affect us companies and businessmenwho do business in Russia.
But despite this, Vice-President Mike Pence, who this week flew to Tbilisi, said during his press conference with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvilithat “President trump will soon sign the bill on sanctions against Russia”.
By the way, the bill provides for the imposition of sanctions not only against Russia but also against Iran and the DPRK. The main claim of the USA to these States is developing its own nuclear programs.
Now the US is authorized to deny entry and to revoke visas for those individuals who, for example, involved the sale of weapons to the Syrian government or abusing human rights.
On the official website of the White house already released a statement by Donald trump regarding the adoption of sanctions. The President believes that despite the fact that his administration has made some corrections in the bill, it still has flaws, including due to the significant limitations of the powers of the President.
“By limiting the flexibility of Executive authority, the bill makes it difficult for the United States conclude successful deals in favor of the American people and will further bring together China, Russia and North Korea. The framework of our Constitution gave foreign Affairs to the President. This bill will prove the wisdom of such a choice,” said trump.
However, the President said that he signed the bill, guided by “national unity”.
“We hope that between our two countries will be cooperation on major global issues, thus, these sanctions are no longer required,” added Donald trump, mentioning Russia.
Apparently, the Kremlin was already ready to such outcome: on Sunday, Vladimir Putin announced that 755 American diplomats will have to leave Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok to the homeland.
Not to mention that the enterprising lawyers found in the bill a curious loophole that allows Trump to circumvent the restriction on management of the sanctions program.
Of course, to soften or lift sanctions against Russia or of certain of its citizens, the President is obliged to negotiate with Congress.
However, to make certain operations or transactions relating to business, the US government may issue a licence of a particular kind (routine licence)which allows you to close your eyes to the sanctions.
A condition for the granting of such a license is that the licensed operation “does not introduce significant changes in the foreign policy of the United States towards the Russian Federation”, according to RBC.
The issue of such licences could be in one of the divisions of the U.S. Treasury Department responsible for the planning and implementation of external economic and trade sanctions – Office of Foreign Assets Control. Congressional authorization in this case is not required.
Perhaps this will be one of the topics for discussion at the upcoming meeting of Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov and Rex Tillerson, who will meet on next weekend in Manila to participate in the forum of the Association of South-East Asia.
