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Trump’s dilemma

 It is time for Hillary Clinton to enjoy a quiet chuckle. Russia was said to have ensured Donald Trump’s victory…

Trump’s dilemma

(Photo: AFP)

 It is time for Hillary Clinton to enjoy a quiet chuckle. Russia was said to have ensured Donald Trump’s victory last November.

Congress has now ensured his moral defeat with the vote in the House of Representatives, approving a sweeping cache of sanctions against Moscow.

More accurately, the development is a punitive strike against Vladimir Putin’s regime for its interference in last year’s presidential election intended to bar Clinton from the White House, the annexation of Crimea, and the expansionist designs on Ukraine.

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Beyond the Kremlin’s trans-Atlantic geopolitics and its policy towards its satellites, the Congress initiative includes sanctions against North Korea and Iran, the two countries the administration has been eager to hold to account for their nuclear ambition.

The margin has been sweeping ~ 419 to just three in favour of Trump’s flirtation with the Kremlin. It puts the President between a rock and a hard place. The House vote has effectively countered Trump’s attempt to underplay tensions with Moscow or even to veto the Bill.

The Kremlin’s misadventure in America’s electoral engagement has hobbled the administration ever since Trump’s inaugural in January. And there is a stark message to be drawn from a fractured legislature’s countermobilisation as it were. The multiple-target legislation is bound to have a profound impact on America’s foreign policy.

Obvious too is the dual signal to Trump and Putin ~ on the conduct of diplomacy and elections in the fountainhead of democracy.

To summon the words of Speaker Paul Ryan, it is “one of the most expansive sanctions packages in history.” The legislation must of necessity be taken up by the Senate before being sent to the President’s office. It would be useful to recall that the Senate had supported a similar Bill nearly unanimously last month, but it had punished only Russia and Iran, leaving North Korea unscathed.

Russia is no less a target of Congress than the US President. As much is clear from the statement of Representative Ed Royce, Republican of California and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee ~ “Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression. It is well past time that we forcefully respond to the conduct of all three countries.” While the sanctions are against Russia, the fineprint of the Bill is addressed to the White House.

Arguably, Trump will not readily exercise his right to veto, if the statement of the new Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is any indication ~. “While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the President’s desk.”

The Bill is a strong, direct response to Putin’s dubious attempts to undermine American democracy. More’s the pity that Trump had winked at the attempts. Hopefully, it will be passed by the Senate before the legislators leave for the August recess.

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