Rep. McCaul, Sen. Risch urge Biden administration to impose sanctions on Russia for Navalny poisoning

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Sen. James Risch (R-ID) called on President Joe Biden to immediately impose legally mandated sanctions against the Putin regime in a letter Wednesday.

McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead and Risch, the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said a second round of sanctions are required by the U.S. Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 and would hold Putin accountable for its continued use of chemical weapons and flagrant disregard for international norms and fundamental rights.

“Along with waiving critical sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and your Administration’s muted response to Russia’s role in a series of recent significant cyberattacks on the United States, this delay, in contravention of U.S. law, serves as yet another unreciprocated concession that projects weakness,” the lawmakers wrote. “Further, Russia has deliberately and repeatedly broken the international norm against the use of chemical weapons, has violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and is actively working to erode the work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from the inside. In failing to impose these mandatory sanctions, your Administration is forfeiting the best opportunity to stand against Russia’s violations and to protect the norm against using chemical weapons.”

On March 2, 2021, the U.S. Secretary of State determined that the Russian Government used chemical weapons in an attack against one of its own people, Alexei Navalny, a leading opponent of Putin’s administration and anti-corruption advocate. That determination resulted in the Biden administration expanding existing sanctions against Russia – sanction first imposed after the 2018 chemical weapon attack against Sergei Skripal in the U.K.

The congressmen said the CBW Act mandates that the administration put in place a second round of sanctions within three months of the Secretary of State’s determination unless Biden certifies in writing to Congress that Putin is no longer using chemical weapons, has provided assurances that it will not use chemical weapons in the future, and is willing to allow on-site inspection by impartial observers.

“As of June 2, 2021, those three months have now passed. As Russia has taken none of these necessary steps, the Administration now must impose additional sanctions for the Putin regime’s use of chemical weapons,” the lawmakers wrote. “We are concerned that the delay of the imposition of these mandatory sanctions appears to be part of a larger pattern to avoid confronting the Putin regime ahead of the U.S.-Russia summit on June 16, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland. Along with waiving critical sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and your Administration’s muted response to Russia’s role in a series of recent significant cyberattacks on the United States, this delay, in contravention of U.S. law, serves as yet another unreciprocated concession that projects weakness.”