US business stands strongly against anti-Russian sanctions

The US-Russia Business Council, USRBC, and the National Foreign Trade Council, NFTC, meet with legislators and members of the Obama administration to prevent the passage of the bill, which may fix sanctions against Russia on the level of the US Constitution.

US business stands strongly against anti-Russian sanctions. 53699.jpeg

The bill was initiated by chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Democrat Robert Menendez and Republican Bob Corker, who developed an act in support of Ukraine's freedom. The Senate unanimously backed the document in September of this year.

According to the US Congress, the bill stipulates measures against Russia for destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Syria. The document also recommends sanctions against companies "around the world" for their large-scale investments in the development of the Russian fuel and energy industry, including Gazprom, if the President finds that a Russian company supplies significant amounts of natural gas to NATO countries or continues to restrict supplies to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova."

The bill would thus legalize moves to impose sanctions against foreign financial institutions that work with the American banking system if these organizations make a significant number of transactions with Russian defense and energy industries.

Legalizing the initiative would be highly hazardous for business, even though the current sanctions against Russia are not too much different against the propositions from the Congress. However, the US may easily life the sanctions against Russia, should the latter take correct diplomatic action towards Ukraine.

In turn, the National Foreign Trade Council, which was founded in 1914, vehemently condemns the projects of the Senate, calling them "draconian methods." Largest and oldest business associations sponsor many sectors of the US economy that will lose a lot once their investors are left without such an extensive business field as Russia.