U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on Saturday he will force a vote soon on a resolution to disapprove the Trump administration’s decision to relax sanctions on three Russian companies connected to oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
“I have concluded that the Treasury Department’s proposal is flawed and fails to sufficiently limit Oleg Deripaska’s control and influence of these companies and the Senate should move to block this misguided effort by the Trump Administration and keep these sanctions in place,” Schumer said in a news release
The U.S. Treasury declared on Dec. 20 that it would lift sanctions forced in April on the core businesses of Deripaska, including aluminum giant Rusal its parent En+ and power firm EuroSibEnergo, watering down the hardest punishments forced since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
In the wake of campaigning by European governments that pursued the imposition of sanctions, Washington delayeden forcement of the sanctions and began talks with Deripaska’s group on expelling Rusal and En+ from the blacklist in the event that he surrendered control of Rusal.
The businessperson, who has close ties to the Kremlin, additionally had ties with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, archives have appeared.
An FBI agent said in an affidavit attached to a 2017 search warrant unsealed earlier this year that he had reviewed tax returns for a company controlled by Manafort and his wife that showed a $10 million loan from a Russian lender identified as Deripaska.
On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin demanded that the Trump administration would keep tight control on companies linked to Deripaska, despite the decision to ease restrictions.
Mnuchin said the firms would face consequences including the reimposition of sanctions if they failed to comply with the terms.
Schumer said given Deripaska’s potential involvement with Manafort, and since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia has not yet concluded, “It’s all the more reason these sanctions must remain in place.”
Entry of the goals of objection to Treasury’s decision would require the approval of both the Democratic-majority share house and the Senate, driven by Trump’s fellow Republicans who are probably not going to break with his policy.