Hell opened

The United States proposed to consider the new version of the bill "On Protection from the Kremlin aggression." The authors of the new version of the document, called “sanctions from hell” became senators from both the republican and democratic parties. The new package, among other things, provides for restrictions on the incident with Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait. Against this news, the ruble fell to the dollar and the euro.

The previous version of the bill of Menendes - Graham “On the Protection of American Security from the Kremlin’s aggression” (DASKA) was nicknamed the project “Sanctions from Hell” (Bill from Hell). His publication also caused the fall of the ruble by more than 10% and panic in the Russian market. The initial version provided for the blocking of Russian state banks and sanctions against the new sovereign debt of Russia.

Floating dock / pixabay.com

The updated document will affect the banking, energy and shipbuilding sector of Russia. It contains a ban on operations with new Russian government bonds, a request for an assessment of Russia's correspondence to determine the sponsor of terrorism, determining the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a report on the murder of Boris Nemtsov. The project forbids the US President to make a way out of the North Atlantic Alliance without the support of two -thirds of the senators. And it contains a requirement for real estate insurers to provide information about the beneficiaries of companies buying expensive housing in the United States.

From the last version in the new project there are sanctions against the Russian public debt and the cybernetic sector. From the wording it follows that the restrictions will be imposed primarily on Russian banks that support Russia's attempts to undermine democratic institutions in other countries. But it is also said about the restrictions on political figures, oligarchs and members of their families, who "contribute to illegal or corruption in the interests of Vladimir Putin." The sanctions will also circulate investments in Russian projects of liquefied natural gas (LNG) outside Russia (Lukoil has such a 30% in Cameroon).

All sanctions in the law are divided into two blocks: the first includes liability for “the Kremlin’s intervention in democratic institutions abroad”, the second separately identified the consequences of actions in Ukraine. These are measures against 24 FSB agents involved, according to the authors of the document, in the attack on Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait in November. It follows from the text that a violation of the freedom of navigation in the Kerch Strait or somewhere else from Russia will entail sanctions against the Russian shipbuilding sector. The text also introduces responsibility for supporting energy projects with Russian state participation and restrictions in connection with the support of the development of raw oil in Russia.

Frame from the movie "Polish People" / YouTube.com

“It is impossible to put up with Putin’s actions, and the consequences of inaction are rapidly worsening: the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria is exacerbated, instability is growing in the regions, Ukrainian sailors are abducted, and their ships are captured,” said one of the authors of the bill, democrat Robert Menendez. One of the most stringent in the history of sanctions packages according to the senator was a reaction to the inaction of the Donald Trump administration regarding Moscow policy. The previous version of the bill did not go through Congress. The new version has more chances, since more and more senators want to give a more rigid answer to Moscow, Reuters notes .

Russia denies the state’s involvement in interference in the US elections, as well as the participation of its military in the conflict in the east of Ukraine. The Federation Council said that the project "undermines all the rules of free competition and international law." “Americans really want to be exceptional in everything. So far, it is mostly possible on the other side of good and evil. But after all, 22 trillions of the state debt and the thely-dismissed fate of many peoples should somehow beat off? " - wrote on Facebook the head of the Council of International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev . He also emphasized that the US policy is contrary to theses put forward by senators when justifying the bill.

In the evening, on Wednesday, the Russian rublebegan to sharply cheaper for the US dollar on the Moscow Exchange. As of 22:10 Moscow time, the course was established at 66.32 rubles. The euro went up to about 74.7 rubles. It was at this time that there were reports of sanctions proposed by US senacks against Russia.

In the near future, new sanctions will appear against Russia, from Europe. Foreign Ministers of the European Union will discuss them in Brussels on February 18. The United States is soon obligated to impose the second round of sanctions against Russia for the use of chemical weapons in British Salisbury, including, among other things, the ban on Aeroflot flights in the United States.