Trump to Sign Russia Sanctions Bill with Key Condition

US President Donald Trump has agreed to sign a new bill on sanctions against the Russian Federation, but only on the condition that the right to make final decisions on its application will be reserved for him. This is reported by the Reuters agency, citing a high-ranking White House official.

The legislative initiative in question would allow the US to impose tariffs of up to 500% on goods imported from countries that buy Russian energy carriers and at the same time do not provide active support to Ukraine. The day before, Trump had announced that the Republican Party was continuing to work on this bill.

"He will sign it. He made that clear last night," the agency's interlocutor said. At the same time, the official emphasized that the White House will insist on formulations that will give Trump complete control over the process of applying the sanctions.

In a conversation with journalists, Trump once again touched upon this topic, noting: "Any country that does business with Russia will be severely punished." It should be noted that Trump's readiness to impose sanctions against Russia was reported back in June of this year.

However, the discussions around the bill have not gone smoothly. At the end of October, according to Bloomberg, the US Senate had postponed its discussion "until the meeting between Putin and Trump." Shortly before that, on October 21, Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune had announced that the Senate would vote on the bill within a month.

At the same time, The Washington Post has expressed concern that the adoption of the bill could cause more damage to the US than to Russia, as many key US partners buy Russian energy resources, and the application of sanctions against them could cause serious economic and diplomatic problems.