The Trump administration said Wednesday it would impose new sanctions on Russia after the State Department determined it violated international law by poisoning an ex-spy living in Britain in March.
The official determination from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came after the GOP chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ed Royce, chastised the Trump administration a couple weeks ago for dragging its feet on a decision about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer, and his daughter Yulia. Both nearly died after they were exposed to the deadly nerve agent Novichok.
“Your compliance with the Chemical and Biological Weapons and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 is critical to showing Putin that we are serious about challenging his deadly acts," Royce wrote Donald Trump on July 26, giving him a deadline of August 9 for issuing a final determination, which automatically triggers sanctions. Pompeo complied just under the wire.
The sanctions include two waves, with the initial round limiting financing and certain exports, such as those pertaining to national security items like electronic devices and components. Some sanctions already existed on national security-related exports, but they had still been allowed on a case-by-case basis. NBC News writes:
A second, more painful round kicks in three months later unless Russia provides "reliable assurances" it won't use chemical weapons in the future and agrees to "on-site inspections" by the U.N. — conditions unlikely to be met. The second round of sanctions could include downgrading diplomatic relations, suspending state airline Aeroflot's ability to fly to the U.S, and cutting off nearly all exports and imports.
Administration officials has been scrambling to combat the perception that Trump is under the thumb of Russian President Vladimir Putin following Trump's subservience to him during their joint press conference in Helsinki several weeks ago. They will surely tout this as an instance of Trump being "tough" on Russia.
Just remember that it took the threat of actual oversight from a House Committee before they finally made a determination, which came after the statutory deadline had already came and gone. They were supposed to make that determination within 60 days of the original request from Congress, which came on March 15.