‘Full-fledged economic war’: Medvedev slams Trump’s ‘humiliating’ cave-in on Russia sanctions

The US establishment has fully outwitted Donald Trump and used his administration’s weakness to declare a fully-fledged economic war on Russia, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said, adding, that the move leaves no doubt that bilateral ties will never improve.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump signed into law a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia, which Medvedev says has put an end to “hopes for improving our relations with the new US administration.”

“It is a declaration of a full-fledged economic war on Russia,” he wrote in a lengthy strong-worded Facebook post in both English and Russian. “Unless a miracle happens,” the law will affect US-Russian relations for decades, Medvedev wrote.

Warning Washington of a “few consequences,” the Russian prime minister called out the White House’s “weakness” and inability to withstand internal political pressure.

Read more

Trump: Newly signed Russia sanctions law ‘seriously flawed’

The “Trump administration has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way,” Medvedev wrote.

“This changes the power balance in US political circles,” Medvedev wrote, asserting that the US establishment’s end game is to remove Trump from office.

The American political elite, Medvedev said, is not interested in Trump’s pragmatic approach or the interests of US multinationals who spoke out against any new sanctions.

“New steps are to come, and they will ultimately aim to remove him from power. A non-systemic player has to be removed,” Medvedev underlined.

“This legislation is going to be harsher than the Jackson-Vanik amendment as it is overarching and cannot be lifted by a special presidential order without Congress’ approval. Thus, relations between Russia and the United States are going to be extremely tense regardless of Congress’ makeup and regardless of who is president,” Medvedev outlined.

Russia, which has been under a raft of US sanctions for decades, “will cope” with the new measures and will focus on further developing its economy and social sector, Medvedev said.

Trump signed the ‘Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act’ despite noting that the “legislation is significantly flawed” while criticizing Congress for forcing his hand.

Virginia State Senator Richard Black believes the the new law, which also targets Iran and North Korea, will inflict tremendous damage on how the US conducts its foreign policy.

“It was a very, very bad bill. It was ridiculous. It was confrontational. It interfered with foreign relations in an unprecedented way,” Black told RT.

Read more

Moscow ‘won’t bend or break’ over US sanctions – Russian envoy to UN

But despite deficiencies in the legislation, Black says Trump had no choice but to bow to political pressure.
“He [Trump] really had no choice, he was stuck with it... there is no way that he could overwrite it. He could not get a veto sustained,” the state senator said.

“It is Congress that is starting a trade war, not the president. The president opposes the trade war, and yet he is forced into one,” Black noted.

“At the heart of this whole thing is the desire to stop the Nord Stream 2 gas project... to benefit American manufacturers,” of American Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Black told RT.

The Russian foreign ministry has meanwhile said that by signing the bill, Washington has embarked on a “dangerous policy, fraught with the erosion of [global] stability, for which Moscow and Washington bear a special responsibility.”

Maintaining that Moscow “reserves the right to other countermeasures,” apart from the expulsion of US diplomats, the ministry made clear that Russia will always follow its national interests despite any economic pressure.

“The American's love of sanctions that plunged the United States into Russophobic tantrums are long overdue to get rid of illusions, and to understand, that no threats or attempts to exert pressure can force Russia to change its course or sacrifice its national interests,” the ministry emphasized.