Russia faces US sanctions over attack on Skripals
The United States says it will impose new sanctions on Russia for illegally using a chemical weapon in an attempt to kill a former spy and his daughter in Britain this year.
The new sanctions, to be imposed this month, come despite US President Donald Trump’s efforts to improve relations with Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, and his harsh criticism of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The State Department said yesterday that the US made the determination this week that Russia had used the Novichok nerve agent to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and that sanctions would follow. It said Congress was being notified of the determination and that the sanctions would take effect on or around August 22, when the finding is to be published in the Federal Register.
Those sanctions will include the presumed denial of export licences for Russia to purchase many items with national security implications, according to a senior State Department official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
The US made a similar determination in February when it found that North Korea used a chemical weapon to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother Kim Jong Nam at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last year.
Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by the Novichok militarygrade nerve agent in the English town of Salisbury in March. Britain has accused Russia of being behind the attack, which the Kremlin vehemently denies.
Months later, two residents with no ties to Russia were poisoned in a nearby town by the deadly toxin. Police believe the couple accidentally found a bottle containing Novichok. One of them died.
The US had joined Britain in condemning Russia for the Skripal poisoning and joined with European nations in expelling Russian diplomats in response, but it had yet to make the formal determination that the Russian Government had “used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals”.
Several members of Congress had expressed concern that the Trump Administration was dragging its feet on the determination.
While criticised as too keen to strike up a friendship with Putin, Trump maintains that he’s been tough on Moscow. His Administration has sanctioned a number of Russian officials and oligarchs for human rights abuses and election meddling.
In March, the Trump Administration ordered 60 Russian diplomats — all of whom it said were spies — to leave the US and closed down Russia’s consulate in Seattle in response to the Skripal case. The US said at the time it was the largest expulsion of Russian spies in US history.