Resolutions and sanctions legislation are piling up in the Senate in the wake of President Donald Trump’s meeting and conciliatory press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, creating the possibility of fresh Russia penalties this fall.
Republicans criticized the president’s press conference with Putin earlier in July, during which he cast doubt on Russian election interference and blamed both the U.S. and Russia for a downturn in relations. GOP leaders have said that they are open to additional penalties against Russia, but with the House out for August recess, it is unlikely a bill will reach the president’s desk until at least the fall.
“We’ve already done quite a bit, but obviously it doesn’t seem to have changed Mr. Putin’s attitude much,” said Texas senator John Cornyn. “We want to do something that changes behavior.”
Back in April, the administration sanctioned two dozen Russians, including oligarchs and government officials, under authorities codified by wide-ranging sanctions legislation passed in 2017.
There are a number of possibilities for new legislation. Senators Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez are working on a bill that could increase sanctions on Russia’s energy and financial sectors, its oligarchs, and its sovereign debt. It would also pressure the administration to implement mandatory sanctions against Russia under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which the president signed into law last summer.
“I’m going to come out with sanctions from hell on Russia, because what we’re doing is not working,” Graham said on Sunday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo committed to working with the senators on the bill in testimony last week.
Graham last week also introduced a non-binding resolution with Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar that backs the intelligence community assessment of Russian election interference and warns that “an attack on our election systems by a foreign power is a hostile act and should be met with appropriate retaliatory actions.” But it’s unclear whether such a resolution would secure the support it needs to pass.
Cornyn and fellow GOP senator David Perdue both separately objected earlier this month to a similar resolution put forward by Jeff Flake and Chris Coons.
“It doesn’t really do anything,” Cornyn said Thursday of such resolutions. “If it’s just another sense of the Senate—I daresay we all support the intelligence community. I’m proud to do that.”
Senators John McCain and Ben Cardin have also introduced a bill that would give Congress the ability to review a potential administration attempt to alter sanctions under the 2012 Magnitsky Act, a law hated by the Kremlin. During the Helsinki press conference, Putin indicated his desire to have investigators question Bill Browder, a client of Sergei Magnitsky’s who was integral to the passage of the Magnitsky Act.
Under questioning from Cardin last week, Pompeo said there has “been no change in U.S. policy with respect to Magnitsky.”
The McCain-Cardin bill would add the Magnitsky Act to CAATSA. Democratic lawmakers have railed against the administration for not taking full advantage of that bill’s sanctions authorities vis-a-vis Russia.
A third bill, introduced by Senators Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen back in January, has also been racking up cosponsors in the wake of Trump’s Helsinki meeting. It would require severe sanctions against Russia if the director of national intelligence determines that the Kremlin has interfered in another U.S. election. Majority leader Mitch McConnell named the legislation earlier in July as a contender.
McConnell this month also tasked the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations committees with holding hearings on CAATSA, and “to recommend to the Senate additional measures that could respond to or deter Russian malign behavior.”
Boris Zilberman, a Russia expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, predicted that portions of the three major bills—Graham’s, Rubio’s, McCain’s—would be combined into a “minibus of sorts” for the fall.
“Pompeo made clear last week that the administration is ready to double down on their financial pressure campaign against Putin,” said Zilberman. “It’s up to Congress now to craft smart legislation that makes clear to the Kremlin the economic costs to their continued malign activities will continue to rise aggressively.”
