Russia and Putin · First term · № 37
Imposed no new sanctions on the deadline set by the 2017 Russia sanctions law
“The new language also ensures our agencies can delay sanctions on the intelligence and defense sectors, because those sanctions could negatively affect American companies and those of our allies.”
- Said
- , State Department and Treasury announcements (quote from Trump's signing statement, August 2, 2017)
- Subject
- Sanctions law deadline
- Type
- Sanctions and pressure
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- First term
What happened
The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act set deadlines for the administration to act against buyers of Russian defense and intelligence equipment and to report on senior Russian figures and oligarchs; CNN reported that the administration had missed an earlier October 1, 2017, deadline by almost a month. On January 29, 2018, the State Department said sanctions on specific entities 'will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent', estimating that foreign governments had abandoned several billion dollars in planned Russian arms purchases. Treasury published a list of 114 senior political figures and 96 oligarchs that it said was 'not a sanctions list'; CNN reported the oligarch names matched a Forbes list of Russian billionaires. Representative Eliot Engel said the administration had shown 'they won't act'. The administration later used the law: Treasury sanctioned five entities and 19 individuals on March 15, 2018, over election interference and cyberattacks, and seven oligarchs, 12 companies and 17 officials on April 6, 2018.
Sources
- US names Russian oligarchs in 'Putin list' but imposes no new sanctions
- Treasury Releases CAATSA Reports, Including on Senior Foreign Political Figures and Oligarchs in the Russian Federation
- Statement on Signing the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act
- Treasury Sanctions Russian Cyber Actors for Interference with the 2016 U.S. Elections and Malicious Cyber-Attacks
- Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide Malign Activity