30 July, 2017
Russia reserves the reciprocal right to respond to the latest sanctions bill passed in the US Senate by hitting US interests, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Trump wanted to have autonomy to remove sanctions on Russian Federation to improve his deal-making ability.
Nevertheless, signing a bill that penalises Russia's election interference marks a significant shift for Mr Trump. But President Vladimir Putin at the time delayed the retaliatory steps in what officials said was an olive branch to the incoming Trump administration.
Trump has denied any collusion between his associates and Moscow and termed the Russian investigation "a witch hunt".
"There is a bipartisan consensus to confront Russian Federation across the board - from its actions in Ukraine, Syria, cyber, its election meddling - you name it", said Boris Zilberman, a Russian Federation sanctions expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Both were veto-proof numbers.
Besides angering Moscow, the legislation has upset the European Union, which has said the new sanctions might affect its energy security and prompt it to act, too.
Earlier on Thursday, a senior White House aide said Trump could veto the pending legislation in order to push for a tougher deal, an idea that drew skepticism in Congress because his administration had spent weeks lobbying for a weaker bill. Those sanctions also include punishments for Iran and North Korea.
The package also imposes mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile programme and anyone who does business with them. The measure would apply terrorism sanctions to the country's Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said Friday that European officials will be watching the US effort closely, vowing to "remain vigilant".
"Lawmakers are so distrustful of the administration that they are imposing requirements to conduct congressional review of attempts by the president to roll back sanctions, and in some instances prevent him from doing so", Rosenberg said.
"It's a great pity that Russian-US relations are being sacrificed to resolve questions of domestic politics", Putin said, specifying that "in this case, it is the battle between President Trump and his political opponents".
"So if the U.S. side decides to move towards further deterioration, we will answer, we will respond in kind".
Putin said on a visit to Finland on Thursday that Russian Federation was " exercising restraint and patience, but at some moment we'll have to retaliate.
"It is well known that Russian Federation did and continues doing everything possible to normalize bilateral relations, to develop ties and cooperation with the United States on crucial issues of the global agenda, including before all the fight against terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal drug trafficking, illegal migration, cybercrime, etc".
"The principles of trade enshrined in the WTO are also being violated but as you know we are very patient and are being very restrained, but at some point obviously we will have to respond, we can't go on forever tolerating this boorish behavior towards our country", he said.
"This arouses deep regrets because such actions imply aggravating circumstances and special cynicism", Putin said.
