New sanctions anger Moscow and Washington
MOSCOW — The Trump administration managed the unusual feat this week of outraging both Russia’s leaders in Moscow and Russia’s biggest critics in Washington with its handling of a new sanctions law intended to punish the Kremlin for interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.
The State Department angered members of Congress by announcing Monday that it did not plan to impose new sanctions called for in a measure that President Trump reluctantly signed into law last year. And the Treasury Department angered Moscow later in the day with a new name-and-shame list identifying 210 senior Russian political and business figures.
The twin announcements left a muddled impression of how Trump plans to approach the Kremlin in his second year in office even as investigators search for evidence of collaboration between his campaign and Russian agents. His domestic opponents complained that once again Trump seemed to be in thrall to Russia, while the Kremlin complained that he was a captive of what it described as the American deep state.
“This is definitely an unfriendly act,” President Vladimir Putin said when asked about the Treasury Department list. “It is complicating Russian-American relations, where the situation is already hard, and is definitely harming international relations in general.”
Putin said Moscow had pondered virtually breaking ties with Washington over what is known in Russia as the “Kremlin report,” but decided against it. “We were prepared to undertake retaliatory steps, and quite serious ones, too, which would cut our relations to zero,” he said. “But we will refrain from such steps for the time being.”
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers criticized Trump for not imposing additional sanctions on Russia as envisioned in the legislation passed over his objections by veto-proof bipartisan majorities in both houses last August.
“It is a grave breach of President Trump’s responsibilities to reward President Putin by inaction for his intervention in an American election — it represents nothing less than appeasement for an attack on our country’s democracy,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. “It is time for us to stand up for our country. We cannot let these actions to continue to go unpunished.”
Responding to criticism, the Trump administration insisted Tuesday that it was not finished taking action under the new legislation.
And Trump got support from an unlikely quarter, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who has broken with the president before.
“On the whole, it is clear the administration is working in good faith and I am committed to applying pressure, as needed,” Corker said.