U.S. might impose new sanctions against Russia
WASHINGTON» The Trump administration said Tuesday that it is consulting with Congress about additional sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Great Britain, in a move that is likely to further strain already tense relations.
The State Department said Russia has failed to meet a 90-day deadline that fell on Tuesday to comply with a 1991 U.S. law on preventing the use of chemical weapons.
The United States and its allies have accused the Russian government of involvement in the March nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury. The State Department determined in August that Russia violated the chemicals law in the Skripal case. Moscow strongly denies that it was behind the attack.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the agency will now consult Congress on the fresh sanctions.
“We intend to proceed in accordance with the terms of the CBW Act, which directs the implementation of additional sanctions,” she said, referring to Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act.
Ties between Moscow and Washington are at Cold War lows despite President Donald Trump’s hopes of building closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia already faces U.S. sanctions over its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election and its actions in Ukraine.
Putin has said Russia had no reason to attack Skripal, who had served time in prison for spying for Great Britain and then was released in a spy swap deal in 2010. Moscow also denies meddling in U.S. politics.
According to the credit agency Standard & Poor’s, the Trump administration will be choosing three of the following six options for sanctions: restricting U.S. imports of Russian oil, banning U.S. technology and food exports, restricting Russia’s access to international financial markets, prohibiting U.S. banks from giving loans to the Russian government, further downgrading diplomatic ties and restricting travel in the U.S. by Russia’s Aeroflot airlines.
Rep. Ed Royce, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on the Trump administration “to act quickly” on sanctions.
In September, Great Britain charged two Russian citizens with trying to kill Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with the Sovietdesigned nerve agent Novichok. The Skripals survived the attack, but they spent weeks in a hospital.