Trump Signed a Flawed Law

So the US President signed the law for new anti-Russian sanctions after all. The law that caused so much controversy and scandal. The law, which threatens to further complicate the already difficult relations between Washington and Moscow.

At the same time, Trump himself stated that he is dissatisfied with this document written in Congress, that the document has real flaws, and that it's possible that this document contradicts the US Constitution. What consequences will follow? And how will the two countries interact under the new conditions? Our correspondent, Valentin Bogdanov, will tell us.

Donald Trump signed the package of anti-Russian sanctions without visible pleasure. And it's not even that the congressmen have killed his desire to build relations with Russia. On Capitol Hill, the US constitution is also put into danger. Neither Trump nor his successor will be able to cancel sanctions without Congress. After the bill was starting to be examined, I expressed my reservations to the Congress, because this document violates many rules of the executive branch, harms the US companies, and violates the interests of our European allies.

With Congress, my administration tried to improve this bill, we had some progress, but despite this, the document remains very unfinished. The law on countering the US adversaries directly targets, for example, the "Gas Flow-2" project, opening the way to the Old World for the US shale gas, liquefied and sent by sea.

Europeans don't need it, but no one asked. In order not to aggravate already complex relations between the White House and the Capitol Hill, the day before, at a briefing at the State Department, Rex Tillerson called the package of anti-Russian sanctions passed by Congress the will of the American people.

The actions of Congress regarding sanctions made neither the President nor myself happy. We made it clear that we don't consider this decision useful, but they decided this with an overwhelming majority. We cannot allow this decision to stand in the way of improving relations between our countries. Those who, by the majority of their votes, sent the bill to Trump's desk, were really the nervous ones.

Summer break is around the corner, and the Senators wanted to leave for them with a feeling of complete satisfaction. The completely powerless Trump, was not only supposed to do as they said, but also, apparently, happily clap his hands. And he still didn't comment on the Russian decision that will send 755 American diplomats back home. I think that because he doesn't say anything about the expulsion of hundreds of US diplomats this gives Putin a chance to spread his wings without meeting any resistance.

The irony is that Putin is expelling so many people who helped Russians come to the US, and so the damage from such expulsion will mostly be felt by Russians, not by the US government. The junior Senator, Murphy, who says this, may probably be believed by the voters from Connecticut, who he represents, but certainly not the professionals.

Several of them appeared on CNN. Veteran spies warn, that if the US diplomats will have to leave Russia the US will also lose spies. According to their own experts, the behavior of US spies has changed little since the Cold War. Dead drops, wigs, secret signals, all this is used to this day, and the best cover, as back then, is of course a diplomatic status. Intel leaders hid the CIA spies among those who are doing their daily work in the diplomatic missions.

Therefore, if the number of people in the embassy will be decreased, it means we will have to reduce the number of those, who gather intelligence, and this is a problem. However, recently in the US it's common to look for traces of Russian intervention everywhere. The new height of the conspiracy theories can be considered the news that the US Air Force is buying two Boeing 747s for Donald Trump.

Aircraft are the usual type for the Air Force 1 of the US Presidents. But there is a twist: both were built for Transaero, the now non-existing but Russian airline. The lawyers who studied the sanctions law found a loophole for Trump. We are talking about so-called general licenses. The flaw allows the US President to authorize certain deals without Congress if, in his opinion, they don't conflict with US foreign policy. Obama used a similar trick, bypassing the embargo against Cuba.