Trump Administration Won’t Impose Sanctions on Buyers of Russian Arms

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced on Monday that it had decided against imposing any sanctions on countries that buy Russian military equipment, saying that a new law was already deterring billions of dollars in such purchases.

The law required that sanctions be imposed against large purchasers of Russian arms, but it granted exceptions for a variety of reasons. The administration explained the exceptions it was citing to members of Congress in a classified briefing on Monday.

“We estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions” since the enactment of the law in August, said Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman.

Defense deals are often years in the making, so last year’s law, called the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, is only just beginning to have an effect, an administration official said.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the law in response to intelligence that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in the United States. But the legislation presented the Trump administration, which opposed its passage, with a conundrum since crucial U.S. allies and partners, such as India, Turkey and some Eastern European members of NATO, continue to buy military equipment from Russia.

The administration’s rejection of sanctions on Monday disappointed critics, who worried about continued Russian influence.

Peter Harrell, a former sanctions official in the Obama administration, said that it was “clearly disappointing” that the Trump administration refused to impose sanctions “on the same day that CIA Director Mike Pompeo said that Russia will target the 2018 midterm elections.”

“If they want these sanctions to truly have a strong deterrent effect,” Harrell said, "they needed to release a stronger statement today and they needed a few scapegoats to sanction to send a message that the administration is serious about enforcement.”

In opposing the sanctions law, the Trump administration argued that it needed flexibility to pursue a more collaborative diplomacy. But many members of Congress, worried about President Donald Trump’s apparent admiration for President Vladimir Putin of Russia, wanted to take away his power to suspend sanctions on his own.

Sen. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he welcomed the administration’s classified briefing on Monday.

“I am not going to discuss the classified nature of these discussions, but I am intently focused on these sanctions and will continue to conduct rigorous oversight to ensure that the Russian government’s ability to conduct this trade is significantly impeded,” Cardin said, adding: “The U.S. should be prepared to impose sanctions when the law is clearly violated.”