UPDATE (1-14-19): MSNBC producer:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says the Trump administration should not be removing sanctions on Oleg Deripaska's companies, and he plans to force the Senate to vote on a resolution disapproving the move.
“I have concluded that the Treasury Department’s proposal is flawed and fails to sufficiently limit Oleg Deripaska’s control and influence of these companies and the Senate should move to block this misguided effort by the Trump Administration and keep these sanctions in place,” Schumer said in a news release.
(...)
Passage of the resolution of disapproval of Treasury’s decision would require the approval of both the Democratic-majority house and the Senate, led by Trump’s fellow Republicans who are unlikely to break with his policy.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin briefed House Democrats on the sanctions relief plan last Thursday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the session "one of the worst classified briefings" ever received from the Trump administration.
Deripaska, who has close ties to the Kremlin, also had ties with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, documents have showed.
An FBI agent said in an affidavit attached to a 2017 search warrant unsealed earlier this year that he had reviewed tax returns for a company controlled by Manafort and his wife that showed a $10 million loan from a Russian lender identified as Deripaska.
(...)
Schumer said given Deripaska’s potential involvement with Manafort, and since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia has not yet concluded, “It’s all the more reason these sanctions must remain in place.”
Schumer to force vote on U.S. decision to lift sanctions on Russia firms (Reuters)