The US Senate has temporarily suspended consideration of a bill on new sanctions against russia, a decision made at the request of the White House, which wants to wait for the results of Donald Trump's meeting with vladimir putin.
According to Politico, Republican Majority Leader John Thune explained that the initiative was postponed to avoid harming the president's diplomatic efforts. "I think they’re thinking that — see how this meeting goes in a couple of weeks with Putin," Thune said, adding that he was coordinating with Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the bill's sponsors.
The newspaper's sources confirm that the document is actually "put on hold" until the summit of the US and russian leaders. This was an unexpected reversal, as last week Thune said that "it's time to act." But after a phone call with putin, Trump expressed doubt that new sanctions were appropriate "right now."
The bill, which has more than 80 co-sponsors in the Senate, would impose high tariffs on russian energy imports and secondary sanctions on companies that support the russian energy sector. Despite the widespread support, the Republican leadership is in no hurry to act without Trump's public consent, fearing political risks in case of his resistance.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on October 16, US President Donald Trump said he had a phone conversation with russian dictator putin. They agreed to hold a meeting in Budapest.
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