On June 14, 2017, the overwhelming majority of U.S. Senate members voted to pass the bill to codify and extend anti-Russian sanctions. The measure took on the form of an amendment to the bill imposing sanctions against Iran. The new restrictive measures are such that President Donald Trump would not be able to weaken or cancel the sanctions without congressional approval.

The sanctions, which codify the provisions of President Obama’s executive orders relative to Russia, entail reducing from 30 days to 14 days the maximum allowed maturity period for new debt and new extensions of credit to the state controlled financial institutions targeted under the sectoral sanctions. The measure also reduces from 90 days to 60 days the maximum allowed maturity for new debt and new extensions of credit to sectoral sanctions targets in the energy sector.

The sanctions expand the existing executive order authorizing sectoral sanctions to include additional sectors of the Russian economy, namely railways, metals, and mining. The June legislation further requires sanctions on any person found to have invested USD10 million or more, or facilitated such an investment, in the privatization of Russian state-owned assets if they have “actual knowledge” that the privatization “unjustly benefits” Russian government officials or their close associates or family members.

In addition, within 180 days after the bill’s passage, the U.S. Treasury has to present to Congress a report on the consequences of applying the sanctions to Russia’s sovereign debt. Within the same timeframe, the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of State are also to prepare a detailed report on Russia’s oligarchs and parastatal companies, including the individual oligarchs’ closeness to the Russian state, their involvement in corrupt activities, and the potential impact of expanding sanctions with respect to Russian oligarchs, Russian state-owned enterprises, and Russian parastatal entities. The report is also to assess the impact of sanctions on the entities themselves and on the economy of the Russian Federation, as well as the exposure of key U.S. economic sectors to these entities.

The bill easily passed in the House of Representatives and went on to receive the President’s signature at the White House on August 2, 2017.

Officials in Moscow said that U.S. lawmakers’ passage of the bill will lead to a “sanctions dive.” As the press secretary to the Russian President Dmitry Peskov emphasized, imposing the restrictive measures “is not [Russia’s] choice.”

According to the head of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, the U.S. position on sanctions makes no sense in light of the situations in the world as a whole and the state of affairs in the U.S.-Russia bilateral relations in particular.

“What we have is a vicious circle, when the previous step that hasn’t yielded the earlier ‘required’ result dictates the need for yet another, more rigid, but in no way more effective measure,” the Russian lawmaker noted.