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What happened in Kyiv and Washington on 20 September 2018?
Summary
A look back at two political developments dated 20 September 2018: a refreshed Central Election Commission in Ukraine and US sanctions on a Chinese military agency.
What did politics look like on 20 September 2018? Two separate developments stood out, one in Kyiv and one in Washington.
In Kyiv, the Verkhovna Rada updated the membership of the Central Election Commission (CEC). The previous line-up had been due for renewal four years earlier, so the vote ended a long overdue change.
In Washington, the US State Department imposed sanctions on the Equipment Development Department, an agency within China's military. The measure was taken under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. The department was penalised for purchasing Sukhoi Su-35 fighters and S-400 missile system equipment through Rosoboronexport, Russia's main arms export agency.
The law behind the sanctions
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 US companies from doing business with sanctioned entities. The Senate passed it 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.
The two events were unrelated, but both were decisions by legislative or executive bodies on how institutions should be composed or whom they should deal with. On 20 September 2018 the Rada acted on the electoral commission, and the State Department applied the sanctions law to the purchase of Russian weapons by China's military.
