31 July, 2017
"He has now reviewed the final version and, based on its responsiveness to his negotiations, approves the bill and intends to sign it", read a statement from the White House released Friday night.
Reacting to the new sanctions by US Senate, Russia has asked US to withdraw the extra diplomats from the country by September 1st.
"He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are, or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians", Scaramucci said on CNN's "New Day", calling Trump's strategy on sanctions part of his "counterintuitive, counterpunching personality".
Only Trump's signature was needed to turn it into law.
Trump's fellow Republicans as well as Democrats have pushed for more sanctions partly as a response to US intelligence agencies' findings of Kremlin interference in the election campaign. "We are also witnessing a certain revival, intensification of these relations, as things are getting better and better in the economic sense in both countries", Niinisto said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Wednesday, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency that the latest U.S. sanctions move left no room to improve ties between Moscow and Washington in the near future and took the relationship into uncharted waters.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told USA secretary of state Rex Tillerson by telephone that Russia was ready to normalise relations with the United States and to cooperate on major global issues.
"Over the last eight months what price has Russian Federation paid for attacking our elections?" But White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci suggested Trump in fact wanted stronger sanctions.
Relations between Russian Federation and the United States dropped to a post-Cold War low following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, where fighting since 2014 has left 10,000 people dead. He added that he hoped potential future U.S. -Russia cooperation would make the sanctions unnecessary at some point.
At an global summit in Germany this month, Trump met several times with Putin, but the American president declined to publicly give the kind of condemnation that his staff insisted he deliver to the Russian leader over Moscow's election interference. Those sanctions also include punishments for Iran and North Korea.
Lawmakers have been keen to implement a sturdy clampdown on North Korea's confrontational actions - most recently after its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Mr. Trump had privately expressed frustration over Congress' ability to limit or override the power of the President on national security matters, according to Trump administration officials and advisers.
The Trump administration had opposed the new financial penalties voted for by the Senate, as the President seeks warmer ties with the Kremlin. Corker said, Congress would overrule him. But rejecting it could lead to an embarrassing veto override, as the bill cleared both chambers by wide margins, and lead to criticism that he's seeking to protect Russian Federation. "I just don't think that's a good way to start off as president".
