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What did US sanctions on Russia target in April 2018?
Summary
A look back at the sanctions announced under CAATSA, and a separate Ukraine–Turkey aviation deal signed days earlier.
What did Washington target when it announced new sanctions on Russia on 6 April 2018? The United States imposed penalties on twelve Russian-owned companies, a Russian arms exporter and a bank, under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
The U.S. cited several reasons for the measures. They included Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and military engagements in Ukraine, Crimea and Syria, among others.
The legal basis
The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, known as CAATSA, is a US federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia. It works by preventing U.S. 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, although he believed the legislation was "seriously flawed".
A separate Ukrainian track
Two days before the sanctions announcement, on 4 April 2018, Ukraine and Turkey signed an agreement to improve aviation co-operation. The reports of that day did not link the accord to the sanctions, and the two developments were separate.
For readers in Kyiv and the wider region, the sanctions announcement of 6 April 2018 named Ukraine among the places cited as reasons for the American action, alongside Crimea and Syria. The aviation agreement with Turkey, signed on 4 April 2018, was a bilateral step on a different subject.
