WASHINGTON—Following today’s announcement by the Trump administration of the first Russian individuals and entities to be sanctioned under the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker (MS) issued the following statement:
“I welcome today’s action by the administration. The targets of this first round of sanctions demonstrate that the United States will not tolerate Russian cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure, and we will not accept attempts by the Putin regime to interfere in U.S. elections. I encourage the administration to continue to expand and enforce sanctions against those in Russia who violate our laws and harm our national security.”
CAATSA was passed overwhelmingly by Congress in July 2017 and signed into law by President Trump on August 2, 2017. It codifies certain executive order sanctions and directs the administration to impose additional penalties on the Kremlin’s clear, gross, and uncorrected violations of international norms.