The author of the "mother of all sanctions" against the Russian Federation, the head of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Bob Menendez, said that the drafting of the bill had reached a dead end. Now congressmen are looking for other restrictions for Russia in the event of its invasion of Ukraine.

“Other Opportunities”

“I think we have reached a dead end,” Menendez said in response to a CNN reporter’s question about the progress of the bill.

He explained that the congressmen’s disagreements relate to “secondary sanctions against the bank and Nord Stream 2.” Menendez added that congressmen are now "considering other options."

Earlier, a group of Democrats led by Menendez submitted a bill to the parliament that would impose sanctions against the leadership of the Russian Federation in the event of an attack on Ukraine. The sanctions were supposed to affect the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. An identical document was also submitted to the House of Representatives of Congress.

On the eve it became known that the US Congress did not have enough time to consider the bill on sanctions before leaving for the holidays, which will end on February 28.

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"The mother of all sanctions"

According to Menendez, the "mother of all sanctions" will have devastating consequences for the Russian economy and people.

“I want to be very clear to those who are watching these hearings in Moscow, Kiev, and elsewhere: the Russian invasion will set in motion devastating economic sanctions, the likes of which we have never seen before,” RIA Novosti quoted the senator as saying.

Menendez also advocated the inclusion of sanctions against the Russian Federation in the draft US defense budget, but this item was not included in the final version, and now he intends to look for new opportunities for their codification.

“What is being discussed, at the maximum end of the spectrum, is the mother of all sanctions, as I called it. I hope that both parties can soon find a legislative way to achieve this. If Putin invades Ukraine, the consequences will be devastating not only for the Russian economy, but also for the Russian people,” the parliamentarian stressed.

Earlier, the media reported that the provision on sanctions against 35 Russians was excluded from the defense budget of the United States. Provisions on the imposition of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and a ban on the purchase by US citizens of Russia's sovereign debt were also excluded. The restrictions could affect "Putin's entourage" and energy companies, as well as suggest Russia's disconnection from SWIFT.

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The pseudo-reality of US deputies

State Duma deputy from the United Russia party Adalbi Shkhagoshev believes that the US Senate is at an impasse over new sanctions due to their potential inefficiency.

“The efficiency of the budget is such, taking into account additional revenues, that the sanctions will not have any effect,” RIA Novosti quotes the parliamentarian.

According to him, the US authorities could learn about this, for example, from a study by Bloomberg, whose analysts say that this year the Russian budget can receive from 65 to 80 billion dollars additionally from oil sales. According to experts, this will provide "a larger buffer in case of a crisis due to sanctions."

“Thus, “Bloomberg analytics led the Senate to a dead end,” Shkhagoshev believes.

In turn, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, commenting on the “dead end” in the decision-making of the Senate, said that American politicians could spend their energy not on restrictions, but on establishing a dialogue with the Russian Federation.

The "mother of all sanctions" seems to have fallen victim to the infighting of the fathers of American populism. Senators in the United States, who so loudly threatened to pass a bill on restrictions against Russia in the event of its mythical and therefore never coming “invasion” of Ukraine, could not agree on its final version, ”Slutsky wrote in his Telegram channel .

According to him, "the forces expended on the development of the bill could have been used with much greater benefit." For example, send them "to unfreeze the inter-parliamentary dialogue and discuss Russian proposals on security guarantees."

“But no, senators and congressmen prefer to live in their pseudo-reality,” the parliamentarian stated.

The West has repeatedly accused Russia of the impending "invasion" of the territory of Ukraine. As an argument, Western politicians use the fact that the Russian Federation has allegedly increased its presence in the border zones with Ukraine - up to 125,000 soldiers.

Moscow denies all accusations and emphasizes that any movement of troops across the country is a sovereign matter. NATO and the alliance's allies think otherwise and are preparing a package of sanctions in the event of an invasion.

bbabo.Net