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What the Turkey S-400 sanctions meant for CAATSA
Summary
A look back at the US sanctions on Turkey over Russian missile defence, announced days before 18 December 2020.
What did it mean when Washington used its Russia sanctions law against a fellow ally? On 18 December 2020, the question was still fresh: four days earlier, on 14 December 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had announced US 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 on 2 August 2017, though he believed the legislation was seriously flawed.
Why it stood out
The law was aimed at Russia, among others, and the Turkish case applied it to a purchase of Russian equipment by an ally. That is what set the December 2020 decision apart: the target was not an adversary named in the act, but a country that had bought the S-400 from Russia.
