Without weakening efforts

The US Senate has finalized the draft law on sanctions against Russia and sent it to the House of Representatives, reports Reuters. There the document will be considered after July 10, when the parliamentary holidays are completed on the occasion of Independence Day

In the new version, the document adopted "with the general consent" of senators. Thus, it is considered approved by all 100 votes, while before two legislators were still against it. According to one of the senators, the "technical amendments" introduced to the bill did not lead to a change in its essence.

In the House of Representatives they are ready to accept the document as soon as possible. This was stated by representatives of both factions in the Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Ed Royce and Democrat Eliot Engel.

Nevertheless, the agency notes that the vote under the bill will take place after the G20 summit, which will be held in Hamburg on July 7-8. The first personal meeting of the presidents of Russia and the USA Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is planned on the fields of this event.

On June 14, the US Senate approved the bill on strengthening the restrictive against Iran, as well as the introduction of new sanctions against Russia for interference with the 2016 American presidential campaign. The same document obliges the president of the country to coordinate any softening of sanctions with Congress. Only two Republicans voted against - Mike Lee and Rand Paul.

However, on June 20, the House of Representatives, on the initiative of members of the Republican Party , abandoned a quick vote under the bill. The document was sent for study to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The main claim was that the laws that may be related to the income of the United States should be advanced by the House of Representatives, not the Senate.

This caused the discontent of a number of congressmen. "The republican leadership must, without delay, consider the bill so that the House of Representatives votes for it and sends the president for signature," Engel said. In his opinion, otherwise the White House will have time to "weaken these key efforts to bring the Kremlin to justice."

On June 23, a press secretary of the US President Sean Spicer said at a briefing that the White House wants to maintain flexibility when applying sanctions against Russia and other countries. "I think the main thing that bothers us in the approach to sanctions - how the Congress draws them up and is it not fraught with a potential undermining of the powers of the executive branch," Spicer said. In his opinion, the administration should be able to show flexibility in the implementation of sanctions, "to effectively achieve the goal."

A senior source of The Washington Post in the White House also noted that the Trump administration is unhappy with the provision of the bill that the president will not be able to abolish sanctions without the consent of the congress. The source emphasized that claims relate precisely to the issue of separation of powers, and not to a specific issue of relations with Russia.