Senate votes for more sanctions to punish Russia for election interference

Senate overwhelmingly passes Russia sanctions deal
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/337940-senate-passes-russia-sanctions-deal

The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and giving Congress the ability to block President Trump from lifting current penalties.

Senators voted 98-2 on the bill, which also includes new sanctions targeting Iran’s ballistic missile development, support for terrorism, transfer of weapons and human rights violations. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voted against the measure.

The legislation marks the Senate’s most significant check on the Trump administration’s foreign policy, which has flirted with lifting sanctions in an bid to entice Moscow into an agreement.

The bill now heads to the House, where it faces an uncertain future amid signs of pushback from the administration.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to use a House Foreign Affairs hearing this week to telegraph concerns about the bill, warning lawmakers against undercutting “constructive dialogue” with Russia.

"I would urge Congress to ensure any legislation allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions," he told lawmakers.

Those comments appeared to have little impact in the Senate, where the legislation was expected to get wide bipartisan support after GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.) were the only lawmakers to oppose including the Russia sanctions deal in the legislation.

The overwhelming support for new Russia sanctions comes as four congressional committees are investigating Russia’s election interference, including potential ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversees the FBI’s probe, is also looking into whether Trump tried to obstruct justice, according to The Washington Post.

Republicans for months held off on backing tougher Russia penalties giving the administration space to try to improve relations with the Kremlin despite bipartisan skepticism in Congress.

But GOP senators pointed to lingering frustration over election interference and few signs of progress in Syria, where Moscow supports President Bashar Assad, as factors in their push to pass new penalties.

“The United States needs to send a strong message to Vladimir Putin and any other aggressor that we will not tolerate attacks on our democracy. There’s no greater threat to our freedoms than attacks on our ability to choose our own leaders free from foreign interference,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The Russia legislation would impose new sanctions on any individuals tied to "malicious cyber activity," supply weapons to Assad's government or are tied to Russia's intelligence and defense sectors.

It would also give Congress 30 days — or 60 days around the August recess — to review and potentially block Trump from lifting or relaxing Russia sanctions, codify the sanctions on Russia imposed by executive order by the Obama administration, and allow the Trump administration to impose new sanctions on sectors of the Russian economy.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) added that the restrictions on lifting sanctions are more closely tied to lawmakers reasserting their authority on sanctions that Congress implements than in imposing a check on Trump.

“This is not a hostile amendment. This is an amendment saying we've learned our lesson as a body. We should actually apply this. This is not a partisan issue. Whether it is a Republican or Democrat president is irrelevant in this issue. If Congress creates sanctions, Congress should not release the authority to make decisions on and off,” he said from the Senate floor.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) hasn’t publicly commented on the bill, but has previously voiced support for stronger sanctions and warned Trump earlier this year against lifting penalties against Moscow.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, also argued this week that the House has shown an appetite for passing new Russia sanctions bill. The lower chamber passed legislation late last year that would have targeted Russia and Iran for their backing of Assad.

Thursday’s vote capped off roughly a week and a half of negotiations over attaching new Russia penalties to the Iran sanctions bill, which already had brought bipartisan support.

A swath of lawmakers—including leadership, Corker, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), top Democrats on the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations committees and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)—were locked in negotiations for roughly a week trying to hash out an agreement.
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Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Council, said last month that the administration wouldn't weaken Russia sanctions, adding that, "If anything, we could probably look to get tougher."

Cohn's comments were a clarification of earlier remarks in which he said the president didn't have a position on Russia sanctions.

The administration has also sparked concern over reports that it could hand back two diplomatic compounds in the United States to Russia.

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Germany, Austria slam US sanctions against Russia
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-austria-slam-us-sanctions-russia-48054975

Germany and Austria voiced sharp criticism Thursday of the latest U.S. sanctions against Moscow, saying they could affect European businesses involved in piping in Russian natural gas.

The United States Senate voted Wednesday to slap new sanctions on key sectors of Russia's economy and individuals over its interference in the 2016 U.S. election campaign and its aggression in Syria and Ukraine. The measures were attached to a bill targeting Iran.

In a joint statement, Austria's Chancellor Christian Kern and Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said it was important for Europe and the United States to form a united front on the issue of Ukraine, where Russian-based separatists have been fighting government forces since 2014.

"However, we can't accept the threat of illegal and extraterritorial sanctions against European companies," the two officials said, citing a section of the bill that calls for the United States to continue to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would pump Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea.

Half of the cost of the new pipeline is being paid for by Russian gas giant Gazprom, while the other half is being shouldered by a group including Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, French provider Engie, OMV of Austria and Germany's Uniper and Wintershall.

Some Eastern European countries, including Poland and Ukraine, fear the loss of transit revenue if Russian gas supplies don't pass through their territory anymore once the new pipeline is built.

Gabriel and Kern accuse the U.S. of trying to help American natural gas suppliers at the expense of their Russian rivals. They said the possibility of fining European companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project "introduces a completely new, very negative dimension into European-American relations," they said.

In their forceful appeal, the two officials urged the United States to back off from linking the situation in Ukraine to the question of who can sell gas to Europe.

"Europe's energy supply is a matter for Europe, and not for the United States of America," Kern and Gabriel said.

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Senate overwhelmingly passes Russia sanctions deal with new limits on Trump
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/14/senate-passes-russia-sanctions-trump-limits-239553

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Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a leading negotiator of the sanctions deal and a Tillerson ally, said earlier this week that he believed the legislation would get Trump's signature. Democrats, however, are also wary of House GOP attempts to change their popular, bipartisan agreement to punish Putin.

"I know that some people in the White House are pushing back" on the Senate sanctions framework, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Banking Committee's top Democrat and another key player in the talks, told reporters. "People in the White House, we hear, are making calls in the House to try to stop it, slow it, weaken it, dilute it."
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