Has been loath....

Trump to sanction Russia over chemical weapons use

Trump has been loath to antagonize Russian President Vladimir Putin, but was moved to action by a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

By ELIANA JOHNSON

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing sanctions on Russia for its use of chemical weapons in the 2018 attack on the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, according to two U.S. officials.

The Trump administration imposed a round of sanctions last year, as required by a 1991 law. The same law requires the president to impose a second round of sanctions if he cannot determine that the state in question has stopped using chemical weapons — and U.S. intelligence agencies were unable to make that determination with regard to Russia, which continues to deny responsibility for the attack on the Skripals.

But the president, who has been loath to antagonize Russian President Vladimir Putin, dragged his feet on imposing the second round of sanctions. En route to a rally in Cincinnati on Thursday, he continued to minimize the threat of Russian interference in U.S. elections. Asked by a reporter whether Russia is continuing to meddle in American elections, Trump responded, “You don’t really believe this. Do you believe this?”

The White House confirmed Kremlin reports that Trump and Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday. It is unclear whether they discussed the forthcoming sanctions. A White House spokesman said they discussed the wildfires blazing in Siberia and "trade between the two countries."

Trump was moved to impose the fresh round of sanctions by a bipartisan letter sent to the White House earlier this week from the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Reps. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas). The Chemical and Biological Weapons and Warfare Elimination Act, they wrote, "mandated the second round of sanctions to be imposed within three months, yet well over a year has passed since the attack. Therefore, we urge you to take immediate action to hold Russia fully accountable for its blatant use of a chemical weapon in Europe.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department and the Treasury Department had the sanctions package ready in late March, Reuters reported, but they have been waiting since then for the president’s sign-off.

Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who was simultaneously working for British intelligence services. He and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious in March 2018, after having been poisoned with a nerve agent. Both survived the attack.

In response, the U.S. and European countries expelled dozens of Russian diplomats, and the U.S. imposed a first round of sanctions against Russia in August 2018.