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The draft law on new sanctions against Russia was submitted to the US Congress
MOSCOW, August 3 - RIA Novosti. A group of US senators submitted to the upper house of Congress a bill on the imposition of new sanctions against Russia.
The document provides for restrictions against Russia's new public debt, as well as deals related to investments in energy projects with support from Russian state-owned companies. Sanctions are directed against politicians and businessmen: in particular, the senators intend to find out what assets Vladimir Putin owns.
In addition, the authors of the initiative propose to create a national center that would struggle with "Russian misinformation".
The bill entitled "Protection of American Security from the Kremlin aggression" was prepared by the Democrats Robert Menendez, Ben Cardin, Gene Shahin and Republicans Corey Gardner, Lindsey Graham and John McCain. The last two have long been known for their anti-Russian position.
According to the authors of the document, the basis for the introduction of new sanctions are "Russia's ongoing attempts to intervene in the elections to the US" in 2018 (after the "intervention" in 2016), as well as Russia's actions in Syria and Ukraine.
"The aggravation of geopolitical stress"
The bill on new US sanctions against Russia shows the aggravation of geopolitical stress by opponents of US President Donald Trump, said First Deputy Head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, member of the security committee Adalbi Shkhagoshev.
"The normal communications of Trump and Putin exacerbate the geopolitical stress in which the opponents of the American president reside within the US In the political arena Trump strikes at his opponents, which is confirmed by such attacks" to nowhere "on the part of his opponents," Shkhagoshev said.
"Sanctions do not work"
David Mortlock, head of the Atlantic Council's trade and investment group, admitted that the influence of sanctions against Russia was "dramatically diluted" by the behavior of US President Donald Trump, his administration's inability to confront Russia, and also because some world leaders believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "good guy."
"I will not say that the sanctions against Russia have failed, but I will tell you that their effectiveness was dramatically diluted by other things that happened." In that the president (US Donald Trump) declared in Helsinki and on his Twitter, his administration's inability to move in the direction of the stubborn opposition of Russia (which follows from the first one), and also the changes in other countries that we see even here, "he said in the discussion of why sanctions against the Russian Federation do not work, and in some cases even are used by Moscow in their own interests.
"Leading politicians and even leaders sympathize with Russia and for some reason think that (President Vladimir Putin) Putin is a good guy," the expert added.
US Senator Ron Johnson, in turn, said that Washington's sanctions against Moscow do not work.
"You are doing something, and no one ever sits down and does not think:" Well, does it work? "- said the politician.
Johnson noted that the sanctions do not have a really terrible economic effect, at least in Moscow. "And I think that only under pressure you will say that sanctions against Russia really work well," the senator said.
"We can not rely on the West"
Western sanctions imposed a lesson for Russia that one should not rely on foreign technologies and goods, as access to them can be closed at any time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with British Channel 4 television.
"Naturally, we have nothing against sanctions being lifted, but we can also use the opportunities they provide to develop our own capacities in key sectors of the economy, national security and in other areas on which a sovereign state relies," the minister stressed.
According to him, in recent years, Moscow has realized that "in these areas the West can not be relied upon."
Relations between Russia and Western countries deteriorated due to the situation in Ukraine and around the Crimea. The West, accusing Moscow of interference, imposed sanctions against it. Russia took retaliatory measures, took the policy of import substitution, and more than once stated that it is counterproductive to talk with it in the language of sanctions.
