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What CAATSA sanctions meant by 11 April 2018
Summary
A look back at the US sanctions on Russian firms announced on 6 April 2018, and the law behind them.
What was the sanctions regime that Washington was applying to Russian companies as of 11 April 2018? It rested on the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, known as CAATSA, a US federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia by preventing US companies from doing business with sanctioned entities.
The Senate passed the bill on 27 July 2017 by 98 votes to 2, after the House had approved it by 419 to 3. President Donald Trump signed it into law on 2 August 2017, though he nevertheless believed the legislation was seriously flawed.
The measures of 6 April 2018
On 6 April 2018, five days before the covered date, the United States used the law to impose sanctions on twelve Russian-owned companies, a Russian arms exporter and a bank. Washington cited several reasons, among them Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and military engagements in Ukraine, Crimea and Syria.
For Kyiv and its neighbours, the reference to Ukraine and Crimea placed the region among the stated grounds for the measures. The reasons given by the US also covered Syria and election interference, so the action was framed as a response to a range of Russian conduct rather than to a single episode.
