As the U.S. seek new sanction options against Russia, an important obstacle has emerged: the unintended impact new sanctions would also have on European allies reliant on Russian gas imports. With an already-rocky relationship, lawmakers are hesitant to add a new source of difficulty. “I would not support sanctions against European allies…we’ve got to work with them on lots of other issues,” argued one former NATO ambassador. “We weaponized too much foreign policy with tariffs and sanctions…I just think we are overloading the circuits of U.S. and European relations,” emphasized the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. The Senate Foreign Relations chairman has indicated that the related sanctions bills will likely be resolved in the next three weeks, giving only a short window of time to adjust the pending bills and resolutions before they are either implemented or blocked.
Source: Senate Quandary: How to Sanction Russia Without Harming Europe
