The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing Thursday to consider the possibility of implementing more sanctions on Russia as punishment for its 2016 U.S. election interference and other acts of international aggression. Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) says a next step could be targeting Russia's sovereign debt and more oligarchs.
Thursday’s hearing was the second of three on Russian sanctions scheduled by the banking panel after U.S. President Donald Trump declined at a July summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to publicly condemn Russia for interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections.
The Russian ruble fell to its weakest level in two and a half years on Thursday, pressured by fears of more Western sanctions after Britain revealed details about the Salisbury nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter.
France, Germany, Canada and the United States on Thursday backed Britain’s assessment that Russian officers were behind the attack and pledged further action.
In recent months, U.S. lawmakers have introduced various pieces of Russia-related legislation, including the “Deter Act,” to set out punishments for election meddling, and what one lawmaker called a sanctions bill “from hell” to punish Moscow for cyber crime and its activities Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere.
But the measures are still many steps from becoming law ...
U.S. lawmakers mull sanctions on Russian oligarchs, sovereign debt (Reuters)