Select Page

Making it impossible for 71-year-old President Donald Trump to reset U.S.-Russian relations, the House voted today [419 to 3] to slap Russian with more sanctions for meddling in the 2016 election. Saying the bill “tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep America safe,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) now passes the bill to the U.S. Senate for what looks like comparable approval. Whatever rapport Trump built with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, the House hit U.S.-Russian relations with a wrecking ball, only promising to get worse in the Senate. Trump has few good options since the House and Senate could easily override a presidential veto, all but guaranteeing Trump’s signature. Russia and Tehran promised, should new sanctions go through, to retaliate against the U.S.

Trump promised during the 2016 campaign to reset U.S.-Russian relations, something made impossible by ongoing investigations into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election. Neither Republicans nor Democrats can point to how Russian hacking influenced the 2016 vote, leaving former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with nearly 3 million more popular votes. If Moscow really impacted the election to help Trump, you’d think Trump would have won more popular votes. Congressional investigators can’t explain how Russian influenced the 2016 election when Hillary won nearly 3 million more popular votes than Trump. “Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.), mirroring the anti-Russian mood in Congress. Trump finds himself handcuffed from improving U.S.-Russian relations.

Promising to retaliate if the new sanctions pass Congress and signed by Trump, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Washington has been warned “dozens of times,” insisting more sanctions would “not go unanswered.” When former President Barack Obama seized Russian properties and expelled 35 Russian diplomats Dec. 30, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin held off on reciprocal punishment. What got former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions into hot water was talking to former Russian U.S. Amb. Sergey Kislyak about the future of U.S.-Russian relations. Both Flynn and Sessions tried to reassure Kislyak that things would be better under a Trump administration. Despite Obama’s extreme measures, Putin showed considerable restraint holding off on any retaliatory measures, including expelling U.S. diplomats from Moscow.

Expecting more sanctions, Moscow warned Washington about inevitable repercussions. “The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destroying the possibilities of normalizing relations with Russia,” Ryabkov told Russia’s state-run news agency TASS. When Royce says more sanctions will deter aggression, it’s more likely to do the opposite. With the U.S. dealing with a growing North Korean nuclear threat, alienating Russia increases the chances that military action will take place. Slapping Russian with more sanctions won’t deter Russian aggression: It guarantees more of it. Mending U.S.-Russian relations was the best way to rein-in North Korea’s renegade leader Kim Jong-un. Pitting the U.S. and Russia throws gasoline on the fire that drives U.S.-Russian relations to the lowest point of the Cold War. Congress could not be more shortsighted.

Whatever happened in the 2016 election, it’s water under the bridge. When former CIA and National Security Agency Director James Clapper talks Russia’s propaganda and disinformation in the last election, it’s something that happens routinely. State Department officials routinely target Russia and other foreign governments to “influence” foreign governments. Suggesting that only Russia engages in propaganda and disinformation shows astonishing blindness to the usual-and-customary way foreign governments try to influence each other, before, during and after elections. With anti-Russian passions running high in the House, you’d think the Senate would show more deliberation, especially over escalating the row with Russia. Trump understands the value of linkage, strategically finding common ground with adversaries to help defuse trouble spots around the globe.

Slapping Russia with more sanctions won’t improve U.S. national security one bit. More sanctions guarantee that U.S.-Russian relations will hit new lows, slamming the door on Russia helping out with North Korea. European Union officials expressed skepticism about new sanctions, potentially hurting Russian oil exports to the continent. “Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting, energy resources to Europe,” said the EU. With the EU getting about 30% of its energy sources from Russia, petroleum, heating oil and natural gas, the EU stands to get hurt by U.S. sanctions. Swept up in Russia hysteria in Washington, the House and Senate can’t see how more Russian sanctions harms U.S. national security. With a possible military strike on North Korea looming, improving U.S.-Russian relations becomes the only path left for diplomacy and avoiding war.