U.S. widens Russia sanctions, State Dept. urges Trump to maintain them

The U.S. government has widened its sanctions against individuals and firms related to the conflict in Ukraine, the U.S. Treasury announced in a Dec. 20 statement. Among those targeted were seven Russian citizens and more than 30 firms, many of which are based in Crimea. The same day, U.S. State Department Spokesman John Kirby said the enhanced sanctions affirm the U.S. policy of pressuring Russia to uphold the peace accords and withdraw from Crimea. He also urged the administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to maintain the sanctions until the Minsk Accords are fulfilled.

Zenon Zawada: These are the latest in a series of measures being taken by the U.S. government to place pressure on Russia before the Trump administration takes over. We don’t expect Trump will be able to drop or relax sanctions – as he has hinted at doing – against Russia during the first year of his presidency, as legislative safeguards are currently being implemented.

However, if Trump manages to achieve strong economic growth and rally a large part of the public around him in his first year, we could expect more Republicans to adopt his foreign policy and possibly agree to his attempts at compromise with Russia, which would likely involve some form of trading the removal or relaxing of sanctions in exchange for peace guarantees.