In recent weeks, news feeds have been filled with reports of American sanctions initiatives aimed at Russian authorities and oligarchs. We are talking, first of all, about the bill of Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, the Republican bill from Rubio, as well as the Putin Accountability Act project. At first glance, it may seem that the “mad printer” was turned on in the United States and that there is no foreign policy logic in the actions of the American authorities. But this is not entirely true. The fact is that sanctions can be adopted according to different models. In the European Union, they are adopted purely centrally, within the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU. A similar system operates in Ukraine. But in Lithuania and Switzerland there is a mixed system – sanctions require the activity of both the legislator and the intelligence services. The United States stands apart – there are a huge number of different sanctions regimes, which were adopted separately and provide for different forms of introducing restrictive measures. Therefore, make no mistake – the turmoil in parliament will not prevent the President, the US Treasury and the State Department from using existing mechanisms to put pressure on the Russian Federation against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis.
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