Obama signs defense budget as U.S. gov’t expands sanctions

U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec. 23 the 2017 defense budget, which increases military spending for Ukraine to USD 350 mln from USD 300 mln in 2016. The defense budget includes spending for lethal defensive weapons, developing systems for monitoring the state border and training officers and military commanders. The same legislation prohibits allocating funds for military cooperation with Russia until it withdraws its forces from Ukrainian territory and halts any military aggression that threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as NATO member-states. The bill also forbids the U.S. Defense Department from taking any measures that would recognize Russian sovereignty in Crimea.

The U.S. Commerce Department decided on Dec. 23 to expand its list of sanctions to 23 companies (21 based in Russia and two in Crimea), many of which are involved in the military, reported the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news site. The measures were taken to ensure the effectiveness of the current sanctions against Russian firms for violating international law in the illegal annexation of Crimea and exacerbating the warfare in eastern Ukraine, the report said. The sanctions will be published on Dec. 27, when they take effect.

Zenon Zawada: It’s worth pointing out that although the legislation allows for the money allocated to Ukraine to be used for acquiring lethal, defensive weapons, the U.S. government won’t be supplying making donations of these weapons, as had been requested by the Ukrainian government. We believe this step would have dramatically exacerbated tensions with Russia. It’s not clear at this point from what source the Ukrainian government would acquire these weapons.

The defense budget legislation, as well as the expanded sanctions, are part of a last-minute drive supported by both Republicans and Democrats to prevent U.S. President-elect Donald Trump from relaxing or removing sanctions against Russia for the illegal annexation of Crimea. Once Trump takes office, we are confident the list of individuals and firms targeted with sanctions won’t be expanded.

Meanwhile, Trump will have to be very successful in his first year in office in order to gain support in the U.S. Congress to relax or remove sanctions against Russia. We don’t believe Trump ever had the intention of recognizing Russian sovereignty in Crimea. However, he has indicated that he’d be willing to drop diplomatic pressure over Crimea in exchange for peace in Ukraine.