Trump instructed to prepare sanctions against Russia because of the missile treaty

Donald Trump instructed the HEAD of the State Department to develop a plan to introduce additional sanctions against RUSSIA for non-compliance with the treaty on the elimination of missiles.

US President Donald Trump has instructed his ministers to prepare a plan to impose sanctions on Russia for violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The order was published on the website of the White House.

Trump directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Commerce, and DIRECTOR of National Intelligence, to implement the requirements set forth in Section 1244 C of the 2018 Defense Budget Act. Subsection 1244 "C" of this document is entitled "Report on the plan for imposing additional sanctions against Russia." The President of the United States should draw up a report , but in this case he delegated his powers to ministers, the White House said in a statement.

The president is to develop and submit to Congress a report "which will include a plan to take action against specific individuals because of Russia's non-compliance with the INF Treaty," section 1244 of the law says.

According to the subsection, sanctions can be imposed against persons responsible for issuing orders for the non-fulfillment of the INF Treaty or assisting in this process, as well as against high-ranking members of the Russian government. The list of persons must be provided in the report.

Possible measures include freezing US assets, travel bans, and "any other sanctions the President deems appropriate."

The first step to ensure that at the legislative level to refuse to fulfill the contract was previously taken in the US Congress. On May 12, the US House of Representatives Committee on the Armed Services proposed not to comply with the obligations assumed under the INF Treaty, if it can be confirmed that Russia is not complying with them.

Russia and the US have repeatedly accused each other of violating the treaty. The State Department believes that Moscow is manufacturing new missile systems that do not meet the requirements of the treaty, and the Russian Foreign Ministry believes that Washington is going to "start developing ground-based cruise missiles with a prohibited range."

The Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range Missiles was signed between the USSR and the usa in 1987 and entered into force in 1988. According to the agreement, the countries refuse to use and store ground-based ballistic missiles of medium (from 1,000 to 5,500 km) and short (from 500 to 1,000 km) range.