Shaheen Statement on New Russian Sanctions

(Washington, DC)— U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the only woman on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement in response to the administration’s announcement of new sanctions against senior Russian officials, companies and oligarchs. The sanctions were imposed in response to the Kremlin’s attacks on Western democracies, as well as its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its aggression in Ukraine:

“Congress authorized sanctions legislation to be used for precisely this purpose, and I commend the administration for taking action to levy these new designations,” said Shaheen. “This should be a signal to Russia that the United States will not sit idly by while they repeatedly try to destabilize Western democracies, and I will continue to push for additional sanctions to hold the Kremlin accountable for its crimes. Moving forward, it’s imperative that the President is vigilant against Russia’s bad actors, who we know are planning to undermine our upcoming elections that are mere months away. I’ll keep pushing the Trump administration to aggressively pursue adversaries threatening our democracy and to fully implement the sanctions legislation so that it also targets known foreign sanctions evaders.”

Senator Shaheen has led efforts in Congress to hold Russia accountable for its interference in the 2016 US elections and for its continued aggression against Western democracies. Shaheen was instrumental in ushering the legislation through the Senate that authorized today’s sanctions. The sanctions legislation that was signed into law includes Senator Shaheen’s provision to target foreign sanctions evaders.

Shaheen has been an outspoken critic of President Putin’s authoritarian regime and was the first in Congress to call for hearings on Russian interference in September 2016. Shaheen was recently blacklisted by the Russian government, in part, because of her strong support for Russian sanctions. Senator Shaheen is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and is the co-chair of the Senate North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Observer Group, which she re-established with Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) in February.