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The US sanctions bill is a timebomb for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin
The Russian oligarchs are scrambling to protect their assets. Trump will stall and direct Mnuchin (Treasury) to water this down as much as possible.
The major problem for Trump/Putin; The US Congress in-toto detests the Putin regime and views Putin's militaristic Russia as the greatest danger to US security.
They won't allow Trump to indefinitely drag his feet protecting Putin.
By Natalie Nougayrède
Tuesday 28 November 2017
The issue is simmering now but it could well boil over by February, when a piece of US legislation including new, wide-ranging sanctions is likely to be passed. Donald Trump reluctantly signed the bill in August after it was nearly unanimously voted through by Congress – who wanted to prevent Trump from being able to unwind sanctions single-handedly, in the aftermath of US intelligence reports on Russian meddling in the election. The bill is emphatically called The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions bill. Deep inside it, section 241 is the closest thing to a bombshell for Putin’s pyramidal power structure. Indeed, it stipulates that by February 2018, the US administration must submit a detailed report to Congress containing “the identification of the most significant oligarchs” in Russia, their relationship to Putin, evidence of any corruption, estimated net worth and sources of income. Anyone fitting the criteria could be subjected to personal sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans.
Not only would Russia’s wealthiest come under unprecedented American scrutiny but the same would happen to their family members, and anyone doing business with them in the west. As such, the scope of the bill goes much further than anything undertaken to date against members of Putin’s entourage. As sanctions go, and depending on the bill’s implementation, this has the potential to destabilize the regime, not just create unpleasantness for a few Putin insiders. The Trump administration has yet to fully implement the new sanctions. Indeed, there are many signs it is stalling, and reluctant to do so, but the clock counting down to that February deadline, just ahead of the Russian election, is ticking. Trump and Putin sit 5,000 miles apart, but they can hear it loud and clear.
The Russian oligarchs are scrambling to protect their assets. Trump will stall and direct Mnuchin (Treasury) to water this down as much as possible.
The major problem for Trump/Putin; The US Congress in-toto detests the Putin regime and views Putin's militaristic Russia as the greatest danger to US security.
They won't allow Trump to indefinitely drag his feet protecting Putin.
