Any move from the Trump administration to alter sanctions on Russia is understandably going to turn some heads. So it’s not surprising that the Treasury Department’s decision Thursday to ease some of the sanctions imposed by Barack Obama on Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, has provoked some alarm. The sanctions were imposed on the FSB last year in response to allegations that it was involved in the hacking of Democratic Party systems during the 2016 election But is this really the smoking gun of collusion between Trump and Putin to steal the election that we’ve been waiting for? Probably not.
As Reuters points out, Treasury “often issues general licenses such as the one announced on Thursday to help U.S. companies overcome unintended business consequences of sanctions.”
As sanctions consultant Eric Lorber explains, this particular exemption allows U.S. companies to make limited transactions with the FSB in order to facilitate the shipping of technology products into Russia, which is generally permitted. Since the FSB oversees technology imports into Russia, U.S. companies have to interact with the agency. Prohibiting U.S. technology companies from exporting to Russia was never an intended purpose of the sanctions, so Thursday’s move was likely just a clarification, rather than a change in policy. The overall sanctions are still in place, with a few specific exceptions.
On the other hand, the Tass news service quotes Nikolai Kovalyov, a former director of the FSB and current member of the state Duma, saying the sanctions move “is the first step on the way leading to cooperation in the war on terror” and “indicate[s] that US President Donald Trump has been consistent.”
They may not actually be that much of a victory for the Russian government or the FSB, but they’re still more than happy to portray it as one.
