Democrats trying to keep sanctions against oligarch

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats intend to force a vote this week on the Trump administration’s move to lift sanctions against companies controlled by an influential Russian oligarch, intensifying a new line of scrutiny of the administration’s handling of Russia policy.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the sanctions on the business empire of Oleg Deripaska should remain in place and that a deal negotiated by the Treasury Department to remove them was “flawed and fails to sufficiently limit” Deripaska’s “control and influence of these companies.”

Schumer announced Saturday that he intended to use a provision in a 2017 sanctions law to prompt a full Senate vote as soon as Tuesday on a resolution to block the Treasury Department’s deal with Deripaska’s companies. But to approve the measure, Democrats would need the support of severMnuchin al Republicans, which would require them to split with President Trump on the issue. The Democratic-controlled House would also have to pass it.

Democrats have increasingly seized on the Treasury Department’s decision to grant sanctions relief to Deripaska’s companies as evidence that Trump and his administration have been soft on Russia. Trump has made a series of statements deferential toward President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and the special counsel is examining whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

Newly empowered House Democrats called on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to defend the move to lift sanctions in a classified briefing Thursday. Afterward, they expressed their dissatisfaction with his responses and demanded that he delay the lifting of the sanctions to review the decision and “relevant intelligence assessments.”

suggested that he was open to extending a Jan. 17 deadline for lifting the sanctions to give congressional skeptics more time to review it, but he gave no indication that he was rethinking the underlying decision.

The goal of the sanctions, which were announced by the Treasury Department in April, was to punish the Russian government and key supporters for the interference in the 2016 election, among other hostile acts. Noting Deripaska’s connections to the Russian government and accusations of links to Russian organized crime, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against the oligarch personally, as well as three of his companies that play a major role in the global aluminum supply.

But the department delayed the sanctions against Deripaska’s companies several times amid an aggressive lobbying and legal campaign.