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Why did Washington sanction a NATO ally?
Summary
A look back at the US sanctions on Turkey over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems, announced on 14 December 2020.
What did it mean when Washington turned a Russia-focused sanctions law against a partner? That question hung over the announcement made on 14 December 2020, which this article revisits for 15 December 2020, the day after.
On 14 December, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States had imposed sanctions on Turkey over its acquisition of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia. As reported at the time, it was the first occasion on which the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, known as CAATSA, had been used to penalise a US ally.
The law behind the move
CAATSA is a US federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia. It works by preventing US companies from doing business with sanctioned entities. The Senate passed it on 27 July 2017 by 98 votes to 2, after the House approved it by 419 to 3. President Donald Trump signed it into law on 2 August 2017, though he believed the legislation was seriously flawed.
The Turkish case therefore carried a distinction: a law built around Russia and two other states was now applied to a country that was an ally of the United States, over a purchase of Russian military equipment.
