Three unnamed “senior” Trump Administration officials told reporters on Wednesday that they are advancing through the process of considering new rounds of sanctions against Russia, rejecting criticism that they weren’t sanctioning Russia often enough.
The officials said that the review process is slow and arduous, and that as a result the administration isn’t able to impose new rounds of sanctions every time there’s a negative headline around Russia.
The next sanctions would likely be done on the pretexts of either election meddling allegations or cyberattacks, both of which have made headlines, and while evidence isn’t strong for either allegation, officials have already blamed them on Russia enough times that they will feel like they can sanction them anyhow.
The US has been sanctioning Russia repeatedly over the last several years, with many nominal justifications, all boiling down to the general increase in hostility between the two nations being an environment that both allows for such sanctions, and which prevents diplomacy from improving the situation.
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