In the US Congress are ready to expand sanctions against Russia without the signature of the president

The bill submitted to Congress at the beginning of the year provides for the imposition of sanctions during 10 days after the statement of the special services about interference in the American elections. According to "Voice of America"The introduction of sanctions does not even require the signature of the president. Over the past two days, several influential congressmen have already spoken in favor of reviewing the draft law. Among them - the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, Republicans Bob Corker and Chuck Grassley, the same idea was discussed on the conservative television channel Fox.

“We have already imposed sanctions,” commented the speaker of the House of Representatives and a third person in the state, Paul Ryan. “If the committee on international relations, financial or banking committees consider that other sanctions are appropriate that we have not yet imposed on Russia, I am more than ready to consider them.”

Among the ideas set forth in the bill of Rubio and van Hollen, those that relate directly to Russia look especially harsh. If the Kremlin intervenes, the authors propose to freeze all US assets of Russian state-owned banks, energy and defense companies, as well as those appearing in the Kremlin list (and these are the richest people not only in Russia, but in the whole world). In addition, it is planned to ban US investors from working with the Russian government debt.

There is a law and criticism. Among them is the former diplomat Daniel Fried, who was one of the authors of the anti-Russian sanctions already imposed.

“The bill will have unpleasant global economic consequences,” Fried said in a blog on the website of the political science center of the Atlantic Council, “American investors will be ousted from the markets. Energy markets will be thrilled, causing damage to the US economy and our allies in Europe and Asia, which are largely dependent on Russian energy sources, especially natural gas. Russia will suffer a serious economic blow, but also to us. ”

By the way, Republican legislators have mentioned another initiative. Senator Corey Gardner said he drafted a bill requiring the US Department of State to consider including Russia in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, and said he hopes it will be considered soon.

"Four years ago, a Malaysian airline, carrying about three hundred people, was shot down a rocket fired from a Russian installation, said in an interview with Senator Gardner, “Russia conquers the territories of its neighbors Georgia and Ukraine, supports the Assad regime (in Syria) and our enemies in Afghanistan, wages an information war against Western democracies, including interference in the American elections. This year, they crossed another “red line”, poisoning two people on foreign territory. ”

Meanwhile, experts argue whether Trump and Putin reached concrete agreements at the Helsinki summit.

Photo: facebook.com/WhiteHouse

The Ministry of Defense of Russia hinted that the specifics were still present at that meeting. According to the department, it is ready to discuss the extension of the "START treaty, cooperation in Syria, as well as other pressing issues of military security." But in Washington on this subject - while silence. Moreover, a Pentagon spokesman told CNN today that negotiations on these topics are not planned yet.

There is no specifics from Donald Trump. On Wednesday, on Twitter, the President of the United States made a “diagnosis” for his opponents, saying the following:

“Some people cannot bear the fact that I got along with Russian President Putin. They would prefer to start a war, rather than to see that. This is called "Trump disorder syndrome!"

In addition, these days, President’s statements made on the Fox News Channel, in which he questions the principles of collective security underlying NATO, are widely discussed. To the question - should an American soldier go to defend Montenegro? - Trump replied:

“These are very aggressive people. And if they start to show aggressiveness - congratulations, you are involved in the Third World War. ”

Democrats are not going to put up with what they consider to be the friendship of Trump and Putin, and for the sake of national security they are even ready to take emergency measures. For example, to force the testimony in the Congress of the translator of the US President who was present at the talks in Helsinki.

“And this is just what we saw on the screens. The interpreter must immediately testify in Congress about what was said there. If the Republicans are really outraged as they show, they must write out (to the translator) the agenda today, ”said Louisiana Senator John F. Kennedy.

But former FBI director James Komi - refuses to believe the Republicans. In his tweet, he wrote that the Republican Congress had proved its inconsistency in the implementation of the values ​​advocated by the founding fathers, and also urged everyone to vote in the mid-term elections for the Democrats.

We also note that Komi was a Republican his whole life, but a few months ago he said that he now did not want to have anything in common with the Republican Party.