Report: US readying Russia sanctions for UK poison attack - sources

MOSCOW, Mar 29 (PRIME) -- The White House has received a long-awaited package of new sanctions on Russia, intended to punish the Kremlin for a 2018 nerve-agent attack on a former Russian spy in the U.K., Bloomberg reported Friday citing sources.

U.S. officials at the State and Treasury departments have vetted the sanctions and are awaiting approval from the White House to issue them, according to two people familiar with the matter who discussed the internal deliberations on condition of anonymity.

The State Department said in September that it had expected to impose the financial restrictions in November. Some members of Congress argue that the sanctions are required under the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, after the Kremlin was found to be responsible for the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018, using a Russian-developed toxin from a class called Novichok.

The Skripals survived but a U.K. woman died later after coming into contact with the Novichok agent. The Russian government has denied involvement in the incident.

It’s unclear why the U.S. hasn’t yet announced the new sanctions, or how long the White House has been reviewing them. There has been little pressure from Congress, which has focused on punishing Russia for its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, the people said. New sanctions related to the Skripal attack risk further damage to U.S. relations with Russia, despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to cultivate a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The ruble extended losses Friday after the sanctions news, falling the most among emerging market currencies. The currency traded 1.2% lower at 65.69 per dollar just before the close in Moscow.

The White House pointed to a Feb. 12 phone call between Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Pompeo “reiterated the U.S. determination to hold Russia accountable for its use of chemical weapons” through sanctions required by international law, according to State Department spokesman Robert Palladino.

A State Department official, Charles Faulkner, has said that sanctions were on the way, “but this process takes time,” according to a Feb. 22 letter he wrote to Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

“The department is carefully considering which sanctions to select from the full list of possible measures and the impact these sanctions will have on U.S. national security interests,” Faulkner wrote in response to an inquiry from Menendez.

The U.S. issued a first round of sanctions related to the U.K. attack in August. Russia threatened to retaliate, possibly by imposing restrictions on trade.

Under the 1991 chemical weapons law -- invoked previously only against North Korea and Syria -- a second, more extensive round of sanctions would follow unless Russia met conditions including providing assurances it will no longer use chemical or biological weapons and allowing inspections of suspected chemical weapons sites. The Kremlin didn’t take any such steps.

In September, Manisha Singh, an assistant secretary at the State Department, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the U.S. planned to impose a “very severe second round of sanctions” in November on Russia because of Moscow’s inaction. Singh, who leads the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, said at the time the sanctions would include “banking sanctions, prohibition on procurement of defense articles, aid money -- it’s a laundry list of items that will penalize the Russian government.”

Under its first round of sanctions, the U.S. limited exports to Russia of U.S. goods and technology considered sensitive for national security grounds, including electronics, lasers and some specialized oil and gas production technologies.

“I don’t understand why they haven’t moved on them,” Menendez said in an interview. “We have been pressing the administration that this is an example of actions that needed to be taken in a timely fashion, which should be taken, and we haven’t gotten any response.”

End