US Congress OKs bills to suspend Russia trade status, enact oil ban
WASHINGTON/KYIV: Congress voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, ratcheting up the US response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid reports of atrocities.
House action came after the Senate approved the two bills with 100-0 votes. The measures now go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Lawmakers overwhelmingly support the substance of the two bills, but they had languished for weeks in the Senate as lawmakers worked to hammer out the final details.
Biden has already taken executive action to ban Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal to the United States. The legislation puts the effort into law.
The bill to end normal trade relations with Russia paves the way for Biden to enact higher tariffs on various imports, such as certain steel and aluminium products, further weakening the Russian economy under President Vladimir Putin. It also ensures Belarus receives less favourable tariff treatment.
While Russian oil makes up only a small part of US imports, it carries a high price for lawmakers in Congress who viewed the ban as a moral test in blocking an economic lifeline for Putin’s regime.
The White House says that sanctions the US and more than 30 other nations have already enacted have stung the Russian economy.
The Group of Seven industrialised nations also slapped fresh sanctions on Russia on Thursday following the “appalling atrocities by Russian armed forces” against civilians in Ukraine. G7 leaders agreed to ban “new investments in key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector”, they said in a statement.
Russia hits out over talks
Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed comments by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday suggesting Kyiv had presented it with a draft peace deal that deviated from proposals both sides had previously agreed on. Podolyak told Reuters in a written statement that Lavrov was not directly involved in negotiations and his statements were “of purely propagandistic significance”.
Podolyak said Moscow wanted to divert attention from events in the town of Bucha, where Ukraine accuses Russian troops of killing civilians, and added: “That is how any such statements should be regarded.”
Moscow denies targeting civilians in Ukraine and has said the deaths in Bucha were a “monstrous forgery” staged by the West to discredit it.
Earlier, Lavrov said that Kyiv had presented Moscow with a draft peace deal that contained “unacceptable” elements, but that Russia would nonetheless continue talks and press to secure its own requirements.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday he expected Nato members to send Kyiv the weapons it needs but insisted they had to act quickly before Russia launches another offensive.
“Either you help us now - and I’m speaking about days, not weeks, or your help will come too late, and many people will die, many civilians will lose their homes, many villages will be destroyed,” Kuleba said after meeting Nato foreign ministers in Brussels.
German intelligence services have intercepted radio traffic of Russian soldiers discussing the killings of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Spiegel reported on Thursday, in what would be new evidence linking Moscow troops to the deaths.
Attack on Ukraine