The US President Donald trump has signed the law on extension of sanctions against Russia, said an employee of the White house.
White house adviser, Kellyann Conway confirmed the signing of the law in an interview with Fox News.
U.S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday that trump had reluctantly to terms with the new Congress sanctions against Russia.
Last week Congress overwhelmingly approved sanctions against Russia in response to its interference in the U.S. presidential election in 2016, the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea and other actions that U.S. lawmakers considered a violation of international norms.
Tillerson told reporters that he and trump don’t think the new sanctions will be “helpful to our effort” in diplomacy in relations with Russia.
Trump previously made it clear that he wants to improve relations with Moscow. However, this aspiration has been undermined by the conclusions of us intelligence, who believe that Russia intervened in the elections in 2016 to help Trump to defeat the democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The investigation for this reason committees of the U.S. Congress and spectracolor. Moscow denies the accusations of interference in the election, and trump rejects assumptions about the collusion of his staff with the Kremlin.
Policy document
The law consolidates and complements the large volume taken previously, after the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in the Donbass, documents on sanctions against Russia. The law does not impose directly any new measures and does not obligate the President to enter them.
At the same time, according to many experts, the very threat contained in the new law, the sanctions could force some of the companies and financial institutions in the U.S. and other countries it will be prudent to refrain from working with Russia.
Aside from depriving the President the right to lift the sanctions, the main novelties in the law are penalties for participation in the construction and servicing of the Russian pipelines, for participation in foreign oil and gas projects have fallen under previous sanctions of Russian companies, and sanctions against involved in computer break-ins, a further tightening of lending companies and banks previously sanctioned, and to publish detailed reports on individuals close to President Putin.
