The U.S. Congress has voted for tougher sanctions to punish Russia for its intervention in Ukraine, moving beyond steps the White House and European Union have been willing to take while giving President Barack Obama leeway in applying most of the provisions.
The Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, which passed the Senate and House unanimously, authorizes — but doesn’t require — providing lethal assistance to Ukraine’s military as well as sweeping sanctions on Russia’s energy sector. The measure mandates sanctions against Rosoboronexport, the state agency that promotes Russia’s defense exports and arms trade. It also would require sanctions on OAO Gazprom (GAZP), the world’s largest extractor of natural gas, if the state-controlled company withholds supplies to other European nations.
The resolution was softened from its original text, which would have required sanctions on the Russian energy industry and made Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia “major non-NATO allies,” facilitating arms transfers and greater military cooperation with the former Soviet republics. The measure awaits a final procedural vote in the Senate as early as today before it reaches the president’s desk.
“The hesitant U.S. response to Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine threatens to escalate this conflict even further,” said Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican and co-author of the original Senate measure, S.2828, along with Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and the outgoing chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
