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Why did Washington sanction a NATO ally?
Summary
A retrospective on the 14 December 2020 decision to penalise Turkey over its purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems.
What did it mean when the United States turned its Russia sanctions law on an ally? On 14 December 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington had imposed sanctions on Turkey over its acquisition of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia.
The announcement was notable for its legal tool. It was the first time the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, known as CAATSA, had been used to penalise a U.S. ally.
The law behind the move
CAATSA is a U.S. 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 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.
What the decision showed
The law was written with Russia among its main targets, and the 14 December 2020 step extended it to a state that had bought Russian military hardware. In practical terms, the S-400 purchase was the trigger: the penalty was tied to Turkey's acquisition of the system, not to any other dispute named in the announcement.
The decision placed an ally under a sanctions regime originally aimed at adversaries, a precedent set on that date.
