On 22 July, the U.S. Congress reached an agreement on the issue of tightening sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. In addition, the bill provides limitations on the powers of the US President on lifting sanctions against Russia.
“The United States is opposed to the policy pursued by Russia. Hostility to Russia has accelerated the achievement of consensus and the adoption by the two parties relevant measures,” — said the Deputy Director of Fudan University USA Xin Qiang The paper. Xin Qiang at the same time believes that this could strengthen the mutual sanctions of Russia and the USA, “when they affected the interests of Russia, Putin will not leave this unrewarded and will react properly.”
According to the Agency “Sputnik”, the press Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov on July 24 said that Russia does not intend to impose sanctions against the United States, as such measures usually bring the opposite result, because not only harm bilateral relations, but also harm economic development.
Since the United States imposed sanctions mainly on the Russian energy sector, it affected the energy security of the European Union. On 24 July, the EU tried to use all diplomatic channels to get the United States, at the time of adoption of the law, to consider the above fact.
Limit Trump
News Agency reports Yangguang Wang, U.S. Congress after reaching a consensus on this bill agreed to include in the bill passed in may this year the lower house of Parliament, the contents of the sanctions imposed against North Korea, and also adopted in June the upper house of the sanctions against Iran.
The leader of the Republican party Ronna McDaniel stated that this is the case when the sanctions “will force these countries to take responsibility for dangerous actions”. The bill strengthened the sanctions against Russia imposed limitations for individuals and organizations in the US in cooperation and trade with Russia.
The leader of the minority in the House of representatives, Nancy Pelosi said that Russia’s intervention in the presidential elections in 2016 is “outrageous and unacceptable,” the United States should “immediately pass a bill that sanctions as early as possible in force”. In addition, it is worth noting that the new law limits the authority of the President of the United States for the lifting of sanctions against Russia. The bill provides that if a U.S. President wants to make major changes in foreign policy towards Russia, or to remove the sanctions, then the President is obliged to report their intentions to the Parliament, which within 30 days must accept or reject the President’s proposal.
Xin Qiang analyzes: the U.S. Congress believes that the actions of the United States against Russia is not enough hard, and also worry that trump will try to sacrifice US interests for the sake of improving Russian-American relations. This leads to some distrust, therefore, the Parliament of the United States through legislation trying to restrict Executive power.
Press Secretary of the White House Sarah Sanders July 23, said: “the White house has expressed support for new sanctions, also was adopted a number of measures for the implementation of future sanctions against Russia, to the extent that agreements were reached and other matters,” “the Us government maintains a strict policy against Russia, special attention is paid to the execution of sanctions.”
Director of communications at the White house Anthony of Scaramucci said that the President has not yet decided whether to sign the bill, but soon will make the final decision. He admits he does not understand the way of thinking of the new President. Scaramucci said that if it is proved the involvement of Russia to hacker attacks, then trump will take extremely tough action against Russia.
The Russian newspaper “Vzglyad” on July 23rd published the news, which said that trump is faced with the dilemma: if you reject this bill, in the future, accusations of “Relegate” will continue, and if we accept this bill, then it greatly reduced the ability to have independent foreign policy.
Xin Qiang believes that on the one hand reflections of internal control US ease the tensions between the legislative and Executive power, but trump may not be able to resist this bill. On the other hand, the Congress is subordinate to the Republican party, in this case, there is a possibility of reaching consensus between the White house and Congress.
Reuters reports that many members of Congress hope that trump will take this bill and pass the following information: “to Russia need to stay relentless”. In the beginning of the month trump during a meeting in Germany in Hamburg in the framework of the G20 first met with the President of Russia. The whole world is trying to predict the outcome of this meeting, will sustain a greater intensity of relations between the U.S. and Russia.
Russia has long been “used”
July 24, press Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov has expressed discontent with new sanctions against Russia and said that Russia has got used to such reaction from other countries and added that the Russian Federation “may suddenly retaliate”.
Xin Qiang believes that Russia is able to revenge cruelly, but is unlikely to do so immediately, most likely, will wait for the right moment. Both States are engaged in diplomatic war, to the extent that impose on each other economic sanctions, to the detriment of both Russia and the United States. “But only when they affected the real interests of Russia, Putin will not be deterred” — analyzes Xin Qiang.
As reported by Sputnik, when the United States was preparing a new package of sanctions against Russia, at the same time, Russia repeatedly demanded the US to unfreeze Russian assets frozen Obama in 2016. The Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov called the behavior of the United States “daylight robbery”. In response Russia is going to withdraw more than 30 diplomats.
Putin during an interview on the First channel said that it is necessary to see the end result of us sanctions, and then make the decision. The President also expressed that regardless of what decision the U.S. side, the sanctions will not be able to cause serious damage to the country.
According to the observations of the journalist of The paper, this time Russian media primarily focused on the fact that the European Union opposes the imposition of sanctions. It is difficult to imagine how Russia would act. Business FM reports that Russia is looking at sanctions as a geopolitical game, and these temporary restrictions only challenge the country.
The European Union against
In fact, the intention of the US to strengthen sanctions against Russia caused concern in European Union. July 24, the group of Seven countries (G7) has warned the United States that any action must be agreed upon by the countries participating in the G7.
Based on the content of the published bill, the gas pipeline “Nord stream-2” is a threat to the energy security of Ukraine.
The bill aims to curb the influence of Russia. The gas pipeline “Nord stream-2” is designed to transport gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine. The European Union is concerned that the bill will affect the supply of gas to the EU.
The German foreign Ministry has already criticized the US policy saying that if the “Nord stream-2” fall under the sanctions, then Germany may take counter-measures. June 23, French President Makron again urged the leaders of Russia, Germany and Ukraine to hold talks on resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
According to the Financial Times of 23 July, the press Secretary of the European Union openly declared that the new package of sanctions could harm the EU economy and energy security. The US should responsible for the consequences. The European Union urged the United States to the coordination of actions.
In addition, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker urged European Union as soon as possible to take action if the US does not take into account the opinion of the EU. It is reported that the European Union insists that the White house made a public statement in written or oral form that the new sanctions will not affect the interests of the countries of the European Union.
However, Xin Qiang believes that anti-Russian the US is unlikely to make major changes to the bill. Although in the United States, too, there are those who believe sanctions are not the most effective method of influence. Director of the American petroleum Institute Jack Gerard urged Congress to amend the sanctions to avoid unintended consequences. In addition, US companies hope that Congress will be able to change the restrictive measures and to mitigate the possible consequences for the economy.
