Tag Archives: Sanctions

Kremlin orders Washington to slash embassy staff in Russia

A general view shows the U.S. consulate in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Russia, July 31, 2017.

By Maria Tsvetkova and Jack Stubbs

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin has ordered the United States to cut about 60 percent of its diplomatic staff in Russia but many of those let go will be Russian citizens, tempering the impact of a measure adopted in retaliation for new U.S. sanctions.

The ultimatum issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin is a display to voters at home he is prepared to stand up to Washington, but is also carefully calibrated to avoid directly affecting the U.S. investment he needs, or burning his bridges with his U.S. opposite number Donald Trump.

All staff at the U.S. embassy in Moscow were on Monday summoned to an all-hands meeting where Ambassador John F. Tefft briefed employees on the Russian decision – the toughest diplomatic demarche between the two countries since the Cold War.

“The atmosphere was like a funeral,” said the person present, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the media.

Putin said on Sunday Russia was ordering the United States to cut 755 diplomatic staff by September. The move, he said, was in reaction to Congressional approval for a new round of sanctions against Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the 755

could include Russian citizens, a group who comprise the vast majority of the United States’ roughly 1,200 embassy and consulate staff in Russia.

The clarification from the Kremlin means that there will not necessarily be a mass expulsion of U.S. diplomats because the numbers to be cut can be made up from Russian staff.

Reducing their numbers will affect embassy and consular operations, but that step does not carry the same diplomatic impact as expelling U.S. diplomats from Russia.

Commenting on which diplomatic staff would have to go, Peskov told reporters on a conference call: “That’s the choice of the United States.”

He added: “(It’s) diplomats and technical employees. That is, we’re not talking purely about diplomats – obviously, there isn’t that number of diplomats – but about people with non-diplomatic status, and people hired locally, and Russian citizens who work there.”

A U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called Russia’s action “a regrettable and uncalled-for act … We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it”.

As of 2013, the U.S. mission in Russia, including the Moscow embassy and consulates in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, employed 1,279 staff, according to a State Department Inspector General’s report that year. That included 934 “locally employed” staff and 301 U.S. “direct-hire” staff.

Forcing the United States to scale back its diplomatic presence will reinforce Putin’s reputation at home as a resolute defender of Russia’s interests. That will help burnish his image before next year’s presidential election, when he is expected to seek another term.

But the consequences of the Russian retaliation are not so stark that it would permanently alienate U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Moscow Carnegie Center, a think tank.

By announcing his counter-measures before Trump signed the sanctions legislation into law, “Putin is sending a message that he is punishing Congress’s America, and not Trump’s America,” Baunov wrote in a Facebook post. “(Putin) has taken Trump out of the direct line of fire and spared his ego.”

Absent from the Russian retaliation were any measures that directly target U.S. investment in Russia. U.S. bluechip companies such as Ford, Citi and Boeing have projects in the country, bringing the kind of investment the Kremlin needs to lift a sluggish economic recovery.

 

COUNTER-MEASURES

The Russian measures were announced after the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly approved new sanctions on Russia. The White House said on Friday that Trump would sign the sanctions bill.

The new U.S. sanctions arose in part from conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help Trump win it, and to punish Russia further for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Moscow’s response included word that it would seize two U.S. diplomatic properties – a warehouse in southern Moscow and a complex on the outskirts of the city that embassy staff use for weekend recreation.

On Monday, a Reuters journalist saw five vehicles with diplomatic license plates, one of them a cargo truck, arrive at the recreation complex. The convoy was refused access, the journalist reported.

At the warehouse, a Reuters TV cameraman saw several trucks being loaded by workers in the uniforms of embassy employees.

In an interview broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday, Putin said he acted as there was no sign that relations between Russia and the United States were improving under Trump.

“We were waiting for quite a long time that maybe something would change for the better, were holding out hope that the situation would change somehow. But it appears that even if it changes someday it will not change soon,” Putin said.

Putin said Russia could take more measures against the United States, but not at the moment. “I am against it as of today,” he said in the interview with Vesti TV.

 

TOWN HALL MEETING

Embassy employees in Moscow were on Monday anxiously waiting to hear if they would keep their jobs.

The person who was present at the embassy meeting said Ambassador Tefft described the Russian decision as unfair.

The ambassador provided no details of where the staff cuts would fall, the witness said, but said Russian staff who were let go would have the right to apply for a special immigration visa to the United States.

“People asked what Russian staff should do now, since a lot of Russian people working for the embassy are blacklisted and cannot find a job in Russian companies,” said the person present.

“The ambassador said that by playing these diplomatic games, the Russian government first of all attacks its citizens, and the Russian government did not even know that the majority of people working at the embassy were Russians.”

An embassy spokeswoman confirmed the meeting had taken place, and the account of the ambassador’s remarks. She declined comment on which departments would be affected by the cuts.

One area likely to be hit by the staff cuts is the U.S. operation that issues visas to Russian citizens seeking to travel to the United States, according to a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul.

“If these cuts are real, Russians should expect to wait weeks if not months to get visas to come to U.S.,” McFaul wrote in a Twitter post on Sunday.

 

(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt, Dmitry Madorsky and Gennady Novik in Moscow and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

Deadly protests mar Venezuela ballot as voters snub Maduro assembly

Flames erupt as clashes break out near security forces members (R) while the Constituent Assembly election is being carried out in Caracas, Venezuela,

By Alexandra Ulmer and Anggy Polanco

CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela, (Reuters) – Deadly protests rocked Venezuela on Sunday as voters broadly boycotted an election for a constitutional super-body that unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro vowed would begin a “new era of combat” in the crisis-stricken nation.

Anti-Maduro activists wearing hoods or masks erected barricades on roads, and scuffles broke out with security forces who moved in quickly to disperse demonstrators who denounced the election as a naked power grab by the president.

Authorities said 10 people were killed in the confrontations, which made Sunday one of the deadliest days since massive protests started in early April.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro show his ballot as casts his vote at a polling station during the Constituent Assembly election in Caracas, Venezuela July 30, 2017.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro show his ballot as casts his vote at a polling station during the Constituent Assembly election in Caracas, Venezuela July 30, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

Maduro, widely disliked for overseeing an unraveling of Venezuela’s economy, has promised the assembly will bring peace by way of a new constitution after four months of opposition protests in which more than 120 people have been killed.

Opposition parties sat out the election, saying it was rigged to increase Maduro’s powers, a view shared by countries including Spain, Canada, Colombia and the United States.

The Trump administration is considering imposing U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s vital oil sector in response to Sunday’s election, U.S. officials said.

Potential U.S. sanctions on sales of light crude to Venezuela’s oil company PDVSA would hamper its already weak refining network.

Caracas was largely shut down, streets were deserted and polling stations were mostly empty, dealing a blow to the legitimacy of the vote. A bomb exploded in the capital and wounded seven police officers in what could be the spread of more aggressive tactics.

Critics say the assembly will allow Maduro to dissolve the opposition-run Congress, delay future elections and rewrite electoral rules to prevent the socialists from being voted out of power. The opposition vowed to hold protests again on Monday and to keep pressuring Maduro’s cash-strapped government until he’s forced from office.

“Even if they win today, this won’t last long,” said opposition supporter Berta Hernandez, a 60-year-old doctor in a wealthier Caracas district. “I’ll continue on the streets because, not long from now, this will come to an end.”

Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader narrowly elected in 2013, dismisses criticism of the assembly as right-wing propaganda aimed at sabotaging the brand of socialism created by his mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez.

“The ’emperor’ Donald Trump wanted to halt the Venezuelan people’s right to vote,” said Maduro as he rapidly voted at 6 a.m. in a low-income area of Caracas that has turned on the government.

“A new era of combat will begin. We’re going all out with this constituent assembly,” he said.

But with polls showing some 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose the vote, the country’s 2.8 million state employees are under huge pressure to participate – with some two dozen sources telling Reuters they were being threatened with dismissal. Workers were being blasted with text messages and phone calls asking them to vote and report back after doing so.

The opposition estimated participation was at around a paltry 12 percent, but warned the government was gearing up to announce some 8.5 million people had voted.

 

‘SLAP MADURO’

Fueling anger against Maduro is an unprecedented economic meltdown in the country of some 30 million people, which was once a magnet for European migrants thanks to an oil boom that was the envy of Latin America.

However, nearly two decades of heavy currency and price controls have asphyxiated business. Venezuelans have seen their purchasing power shredded by the world’s highest inflation rate.

Millions of Venezuelans now struggle to eat three times a day due to shortages of products as basic as rice and flour.

“Sometimes I take bread from my mouth and give it to my two kids,” said pharmacy employee Trina Sanchez, 28, as she waited for a bus to work. “This is a farce. I want to slap Maduro.”

To show the massive scale of public anger, the opposition organized an unofficial referendum over Maduro’s plan earlier this month.

More than 7 million voters overwhelmingly rejected the constituent assembly and voted in favor of early elections.

The opposition’s bid last year to hold a recall referendum against Maduro was rejected, regional elections have been postponed and the president has repeatedly ignored Congress.

 

BOMB BLAST

In Sunday’s gravest incident, a bomb went off as a group of police officers on motorbikes sped past Caracas’ Altamira Plaza, an opposition stronghold. The state prosecutor’s office said seven officers were wounded and four motorbikes incinerated.

Clashes were also reported in the volatile Andean state of Tachira, whose capital is San Cristobal, where witnesses told Reuters an unidentified group of men had showed up at two separate street protests and shot at demonstrators.

Fatalities over the weekend included two teenagers and a candidate to the assembly killed during a robbery in the jungle state of Bolivar. The state’s Socialist Party governor, Francisco Rangel, said the death was a “political hit job” and blamed it on the opposition.

Supporters of “Chavismo,” the movement founded by Chavez, Maduro’s more charismatic predecessor who enjoyed high oil prices for much of his mandate, said they wanted to halt the unrest.

“The (opposition) wants deaths and roadblocks and the government wants peace,” said Olga Blanco, 50, voting for candidates to the assembly at a school in Caracas.

The assembly is due to sit within 72 hours of results being certified, with government loyalists such as powerful Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello and Maduro’s wife and son expected to win seats.

 

(Additional reporting by Andreina Aponte, Girish Gupta, Corina Pons, Jaczo Gomez, Hugh Bronstein and Carlos Garcia in Caracas, Maria Ramirez in Puerto Ordaz, Mircely Guanipa in Punto Fijo, Francisco Aguilar in Barinas, Matt Spetalnick and Marianna Parraga in Houston; Writing by Brian Ellsworth, Girish Gupta and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Sandra Maler and Paul Tait)

 

Trump to sign Russia sanctions, Moscow retaliates

FILE PHOTO - U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

By Eric Beech and Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will sign legislation that imposes sanctions on Russia, the White House said on Friday, after Moscow ordered the United States to cut hundreds of diplomatic staff and said it would seize two U.S. diplomatic properties in retaliation for the bill.

The U.S. Senate had voted almost unanimously on Thursday to slap new sanctions on Russia, forcing Trump to choose between a tough position on Moscow and effectively dashing his stated hopes for warmer ties with the country or to veto the bill amid investigations in possible collusion between his campaign and Russia.

By signing the bill into law, Trump can not ease the sanctions against Russia unless he seeks congressional approval.

Moscow’s retaliation, announced by the Foreign Ministry on Friday, had echoes of the Cold War. If confirmed that Russia’s move would affect hundreds of staff at the U.S. embassy, it would far outweigh the Obama administration’s expulsion of 35 Russians in December.

The legislation was in part a response to conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and to further punish Russia for its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Late on Friday, the White House issued a statement saying Trump would sign the bill after reviewing the final version. The statement made no reference to Russia’s retaliatory measures.

Russia had been threatening retaliation for weeks. Its response suggests it has set aside initial hopes of better ties with Washington under Trump, something the U.S. leader, before he was elected, had said he wanted to achieve.

Relations were already languishing at a post-Cold War low because of the allegations that Russian cyber interference in the election was intended to boost Trump’s chances, something Moscow flatly denies. Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russian officials.

The Russian Foreign Ministry complained of growing anti-Russian feeling in the United States, accusing “well-known circles” of seeking “open confrontation”.

President Vladimir Putin had warned on Thursday that Russia would have to retaliate against what he called boorish U.S. behavior. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Friday that the Senate vote was the last straw.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by telephone that Russia was ready to normalize relations with the United States and to cooperate on major global issues.

Lavrov and Tillerson “agreed to maintain contact on a range of bilateral issues”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said the United States had until Sept. 1 to reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, the number of Russian diplomats left in the United States after Washington expelled 35 Russians in December.

‘EXTREME AGGRESSION’

It was not immediately clear how many U.S. diplomats and other workers would be forced to leave either the country or their posts, but the Interfax news agency cited an informed source as saying “hundreds” of people would be affected.

A diplomatic source told Reuters that it would be for the United States to decide which posts to cut, whether occupied by U.S. or Russian nationals.

An official at the U.S. Embassy, who declined to be named because they were not allowed to speak to the media, said the Embassy employed around 1,100 diplomatic and support staff in Russia, including Russian and U.S. citizens.

Russian state television channel Rossiya 24 said over 700 staff would be affected but that was not confirmed by the foreign ministry or the U.S. embassy.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement said the passage of the bill confirmed “the extreme aggression of the United States in international affairs”.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met outgoing U.S. ambassador John Tefft on Friday to inform him of the counter measures, Russian news agencies reported. The U.S. Embassy said Tefft had expressed his “strong disappointment and protest”.

Most U.S. diplomatic staff, including around 300 U.S. citizens, work in the main embassy in Moscow, with others based in consulates in St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was also seizing a Moscow dacha compound used by U.S. diplomats for recreation, from Aug. 1, as well as a U.S. diplomatic warehouse in Moscow.

In December, the outgoing Obama administration seized two Russian diplomatic compounds – one in New York and another in Maryland – at the same time as it expelled Russian diplomats.

Trump and Putin met for the first time at a G20 summit in Germany this month in what both sides described as a productive encounter, but Russian officials have become increasingly convinced that Congress and Trump’s political opponents will not allow him to mend ties, even if he wants to.

The European Union has also threatened to retaliate against new U.S. sanctions on Russia, saying they would harm the bloc’s energy security by targeting projects including a planned new pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to northern Europe.

A European Commission spokesman in Brussels said the bloc would be following the sanctions process closely.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov, Polina Devitt, Jack Stubbs and Denis Pinchuk in Moscow, Patricia Zengerle and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Grant McCool and Christian Schmollinger)

Japan joins U.S. in imposing new sanctions on North Korea

FILE PHOTO: Men walk past a street monitor showing news of North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile test in Tokyo, Japan, July 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will freeze the assets of five organizations and nine individuals linked to North Korea, including two Chinese entities, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday, outlining new sanctions against the isolated state.

Japan’s announcement came just hours after the U.S. Senate also voted for new sanctions on North Korea, which followed U.S. media reports this week that intelligence officials had assessed that Pyongyang would be able to field a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by next year, earlier than previously thought.

The U.S. sanctions also include measures aimed at Chinese financial institutions, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

China’s foreign ministry denounced Japan’s decision as unacceptable and “wrong.”

“We are resolutely opposed to any country implementing any unilateral sanctions outside the UN Security Council framework, especially those targeting Chinese enterprises and individuals,” ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing.

“If Japan insists on doing this it will create major political obstacles for cooperation between China and Japan on the Korean Peninsula issue,” he added.

Kishida told reporters that given the increasing threat posed by North Korea’s missiles and the fact that no concrete proposals have been made to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted decades ago by agents from the North, the steps had to be taken.

“Given that we can’t expect meaningful dialogue, increasing pressure on them is essential,” he said.

Japan will be taking steps to freeze the assets of five groups, including two from China, as well as nine individuals, Kishida said.

He added that no further details would be made available until various “administrative procedures” had been carried out, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that the groups had “engaged in activities prohibited by a U.N. Security council resolution.”

Kishida said Japan had been in contact with key allies such as the United States and South Korea, but gave no further details.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and a series of missile launches.

The United States is seeking further sanctions after North Korea tested a missile this month that was believed to be an ICBM. U.S. officials said on Tuesday they had seen increased activity at a site in the western city of Kusong that could be preparations for another missile test within days.

(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko in TOKYO and Philip Wen in BEIJING, writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

U.S. lawmakers reach deal for Senate Russia sanctions vote

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) arrives for a health care vote on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Thayer

By Patricia Zengerle, Andrew Osborn and Philip Blenkinsop

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement on Wednesday paving the way for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar President Donald Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congress’ approval.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia warned it was edging closer to retaliation against Washington after the House of Representatives backed new U.S. sanctions on Moscow, while the European Union said the move might affect its energy security and it stood ready to act too.

“I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president’s desk,” Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

He said the Senate would move to approve sanctions on Russia and Iran that it originally passed in mid-June, as well as sanctions on North Korea developed by the House of Representatives and included in a bill the House passed overwhelmingly on Wednesday.

Before the latest agreement, some senators had objected to the North Korea measures and it had looked like the sanctions bill, already delayed since mid-June, could languish into September.

If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. It is, however, expected to garner enough support to override a Trump veto.

The House voted 419-3 on Tuesday to impose new sanctions on Moscow and force Trump to obtain lawmakers’ approval before easing any punitive measures on Russia.

“This is rather sad news from the point of view of Russia-U.S. ties,” said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. “We are talking about an extremely unfriendly act.”

He said President Vladimir Putin would decide if and how Moscow would retaliate once the sanctions became law. Russia’s deputy foreign minister warned the move was taking bilateral relations into uncharted waters, killing off hopes of improving them in the near future.

DOGGED BY RUSSIA ALLEGATIONS

Trump, whose presidency has been embroiled in a distracting dispute over his associates’ alleged ties to Moscow, is on the defensive over accusations Russia helped elect him last year. He has said he wants to mend relations with Russia that are languishing at a post-Cold War low.

Trump had denied that there was any collusion between his campaign and Russia.

Most White House watchers believe Trump will reluctantly sign off on the new sanctions, given deep support for them among U.S. lawmakers and his desire to avoid being accused of being soft on Moscow.

Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump would have little choice. The Senate passed a version of the legislation, without the North Korea sanctions, on June 15 by 98-2.

“I think the president will sign it,” Royce said on NBC’s Meet the Press Daily on Wednesday.

The issue has rattled Russia, which fears that its economy, weakened by 2014 Western sanctions imposed over its role in the Ukraine crisis, will now find it harder to recover and grow. Foreign investors could be scared off.

The European Union frets that new U.S. restrictions could pose obstacles to its companies doing business with Russia and threaten the bloc’s energy supply lines.

The Kremlin’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is one reason lawmakers have pushed for the new sanctions.

HOPES FADE FOR DETENTE

Peskov said Moscow would wait until the sanctions became law before fully analyzing them and deciding how to respond.

Moscow had hoped that Trump, who made upbeat statements about Putin before winning the White House, would work to repair the U.S.-Russia relationship. But it has watched with frustration as the vote-meddling allegations killed off hopes of any detente.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said this month that too many American spies were operating in Russia under diplomatic cover and it might expel some to retaliate for the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last year by then-President Barack Obama’s administration.

Many Russian politicians increasingly believe Trump’s political foes and Congress have left the U.S. president with little room for maneuver on Russia and they have nothing to lose by retaliating.

In Brussels, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU was ready to act “within a matter of days” if it felt the new U.S. sanctions undermined the bloc’s energy security.

Brussels fears the new sanctions will damage European firms and oil and gas projects on which the EU is dependent.

The Russia section of the bill includes sanctions on a range of industries.

Several provisions target Russian energy, with new limits on U.S. investment in Russian companies. U.S. firms also would be barred from participating in energy exploration projects where Russian firms have a stake of 33 percent or higher.

The bill includes sanctions on foreign firms investing in or helping Russian energy exploration, although the president could waive those sanctions.

The bill would give the Trump administration the option of imposing sanctions on firms helping develop Russian export pipelines, such as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline carrying natural gas to Europe, in which German companies are involved.

In a concession to allies, those sanctions are optional, not mandatory.

The European Commission said a number of EU concerns had been taken into account in the most recent version of the bill, but said it could lead to sanctions on any company, including European, that worked on Russian energy export pipelines.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov and Katya Golubkova in Moscow, Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Yara Bayoumy, James Dalgleish, Toni Reinhold)

U.S. sanctions Venezuelan officials, one killed in anti-Maduro strike

Demonstrators use a tire on fire to block a street at a rally during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

By Matt Spetalnick and Alexandra Ulmer

WASHINGTON/CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – The Trump administration imposed sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials as the country’s opposition launched a two-day strike on Wednesday, heaping pressure on unpopular President Nicolas Maduro to scrap plans for a controversial new congress.

With clashes breaking out in some areas, a 30-year-old man was killed during a protest in the mountainous state of Merida, authorities said.

Venezuela’s long-time ideological foe the United States opted to sanction the country’s army and police chiefs, the national director of elections, and a vice president of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) for alleged corruption and rights abuses.

U.S. President Donald Trump spared Venezuela for now from broader sanctions against its vital oil industry, but such actions were still under consideration.

U.S. officials said the individual sanctions aimed to show Maduro that Washington would make good on a threat of “strong and swift economic actions” if he goes ahead with a vote on Sunday that critics have said would cement dictatorship in the OPEC country.

The leftist leader was also feeling the heat at home, where protesters backing the 48-hour national strike blocked roads with makeshift barricades and many stores remained shut for the day.

“It’s the only way to show we are not with Maduro. They are few, but they have the weapons and the money,” said decorator Cletsi Xavier, 45, helping block the entrance to a freeway in upscale east Caracas with rope and iron metal sheets.

The opposition estimated that some 92 percent of businesses and workers adhered to the strike, although it offered no evidence for the figure. Overall, fewer people appeared to be heeding the shutdown than the millions who participated in a 24-hour strike last week when five people died in clashes.

State enterprises, including PDVSA [PDVSA.UL], stayed open and some working-class neighborhoods buzzed with activity. But hooded youths clashed with soldiers firing tear gas in various places including Caracas.

In western Merida state, Rafael Vergara was shot dead when troops and armed civilians confronted protesters, local opposition lawmaker Lawrence Castro told Reuters.

Local rights group Penal Forum said 50 people had been arrested and opposition lawmakers said at least 4 protesters had been shot.

A demonstrator wears a Venezuelan flag during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello

A demonstrator wears a Venezuelan flag during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas, Venezuela July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello

‘IMPERIALIST SANCTIONS’

Maduro has vowed to push ahead with Sunday’s vote for a Constituent Assembly, which will have power to rewrite the constitution and override the current opposition-led legislature.

The successor to late socialist leader Hugo Chavez says it will bring peace to Venezuela after four months of anti-government protests in which more than 100 people have been killed.

One of the U.S. officials warned the sanctions were just an initial round and the administration was readying tougher measures. The most serious option is financial sanctions that would halt dollar payments for the country’s oil or a total ban on oil imports to the United States, a top cash-paying client.

But policy makers continue to weigh the potential risks of such sanctions, which include inflicting further suffering on Venezuelans and raising U.S. domestic gasoline prices.

Even some of Maduro’s opponents have cautioned that he could rally his supporters under a nationalist banner if the United States goes too far on sanctions as Venezuelans endure a brutal economic crisis with shortages of food and medicine.

At a campaign-style rally for Sunday’s vote, broadcast on state TV late on Wednesday, a defiant Maduro presented some of those sanctioned with replicas of a sword belonging to Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

“Congratulations for these imperialist sanctions,” he said, before handing out the symbolic swords. “What makes the imperialists of the United States think they are the world government?”

Among those sanctioned were national elections director Tibisay Lucena, PDVSA finance vice president Simon Zerpa, former PDVSA executive Erik Malpica, and prominent former minister Iris Varela.

Varela tweeted a picture of herself grinning and extending a middle finger toward the camera with a message that read: “This is my response to the gringos, like Chavez told them, ‘Go to hell, you piece of shit Yankees.'”

Elections boss Lucena is scorned by opposition activists, who have said that she has delayed regional elections and blocked a recall referendum against Maduro at the behest of an autocratic government. The opposition has also long accused PDVSA of being a nest of corruption.

A demonstrator gestures while clashing with riot security force at a rally during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

A demonstrator gestures while clashing with riot security force at a rally during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas, Venezuela July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

‘BAD ACTORS’

The U.S. officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the individuals targeted for sanctions were accused of supporting Maduro’s crackdown, harming democratic institutions or victimizing Venezuelans through corruption, and that additional “bad actors” could be sanctioned later.

Punitive measures include freezing U.S. assets, banning travel to the United States and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.

Sanctions were imposed on the chief judge and seven other members of Venezuela’s pro-Maduro Supreme Court in May in response to their decision to annul the opposition-led Congress earlier this year.

That followed similar U.S. sanctions in February against Venezuela’s influential Vice President Tareck El Aissami for alleged links to drug trafficking.

Assets in the United States and elsewhere tied to El Aissami and an alleged associate and frozen by U.S. order now total hundreds of millions of dollars, far more than was expected, one of the U.S. officials told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Corina Pons, Andreina Aponte, Anggy Polanco, Girish Gupta, and Fabian Cambero in Caracas, Francisco Aguilar in Barinas, Maria Ramirez in Puerto Ordaz, Mircely Guanipa in Punto Fijo, Isaac Urrutia in Maracaibo, Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Tom Brown, Toni Reinhold)

Exclusive: U.S. sanctions Venezuelan officials to pressure Maduro – sources

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends a military parade to celebrate the 206th anniversary of Venezuela's independence in Caracas, Venezuela July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration imposed sanctions on 13 senior officials of Venezuela’s government, military and state oil company PDVSA on Wednesday, U.S. officials said, seeking to ratchet up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to scrap plans for a controversial new congress.

The United States targeted individuals, including the country’s army and police chiefs, the national director of elections and a PDVSA vice president, while sparing Venezuela for now from broader financial or “sectoral” sanctions against its vital oil industry – though such actions, the officials told Reuters, are still under consideration.

The move is aimed at showing Maduro’s socialist government that U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to make good on his threat of “strong and swift economic actions” if it goes ahead with plans for a vote on Sunday to establish a constituent assembly that critics say will cement Maduro as dictator, the officials said.

The U.S. Treasury Department planned to issue a formal sanctions announcement later on Wednesday, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One of the U.S. officials warned the move was just an initial round of sanctions and that the administration was readying tougher additional measures that could be rolled out as part of a “steady drumbeat” of responses to the Venezuelan crisis.

The most serious of the potential future steps would be financial sanctions that would halt dollar payments for the country’s oil, starving the government of hard currency, or a total ban on oil imports to the United States, Venezuela’s biggest customer.

But the decision to hold back on hitting Venezuela’s oil sector reflected a continuing internal debate that has weighed the risks of inflicting further suffering on the Venezuelan people, raising U.S. domestic gasoline prices and causing problems for PDVSA’s U.S. refining subsidiary Citgo.

Even some of Maduro’s domestic critics have cautioned that the Venezuelan leader could rally his supporters under a nationalist banner if the United States goes too far on sanctions.

Among those sanctioned on Wednesday were national elections director Tibisay Lucena, army chief Jesus Suarez, national police director Carlos Perez and PDVSA vice president for finance Simon Zerpa, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The accusations they face from Washington include human rights abuses, undermining democracy and corruption.

MADURO’S CRACKDOWN

Like the Trump administration, Venezuela’s majority-backed opposition is demanding that Maduro scrap Sunday’s election, which would create a congress with powers to rewrite the country’s constitution and override all other institutions.

But Maduro insists it is the only way to empower the people and bring peace after four months of anti-government unrest in which more than 100 people have been killed.

The U.S. officials said the “designated” individuals were accused of supporting Maduro’s crackdown, harming democratic institutions or victimizing the Venezuelan people through corruption, and that additional “bad actors” could be sanctioned later.

Punitive measures include freezing U.S. assets, banning travel to the United States and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.

Sanctions were imposed on the chief judge and seven other members of Venezuela’s pro-Maduro Supreme Court in May in response to their decision to annul the opposition-led Congress earlier this year.

That followed similar U.S. sanctions in February against Venezuela’s Vice President Tareck El Aissami for alleged links to drug trafficking.

Assets in the United States and elsewhere tied to El Aissami and an alleged associate and frozen by U.S. order now total hundreds of millions of dollars, far more than was expected, one of the U.S. officials told Reuters.

The Trump administration has also weighed possible sanctions against Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello, other U.S. sources have told Reuters. But the two Maduro allies were not included in the latest round of punitive measures, the U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

However, individual sanctions have much more limited impact than some of other weapons in the U.S. sanctions arsenal.

Sanctions prohibiting any transaction in U.S. currency by PDVSA, for instance, are among the toughest of various oil-related measures under discussion at the White House, a senior White House official and an adviser with direct knowledge of the discussions told Reuters last week.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Paul Simao and Tom Brown)

House approves new Russia sanctions, defying Trump

A rainbow shines over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. July 24, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

By Patricia Zengerle and Amanda Becker

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Russia and force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow, in a rare rebuke of the Republican president.

It was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. The bill still must be passed by the Senate, which is mired in debate over efforts to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system as lawmakers try to clear the decks to leave Washington for their summer recess.

The sanctions bill comes as lawmakers investigate possible meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by Republican Trump’s campaign.

Moscow has denied it worked to influence the election in Trump’s favor, and he has denied his campaign colluded.

The White House said the president had not yet decided whether he would sign the measure. Rejecting the bill – which would potentially hamper his hopes of pursuing improved relations with Moscow – would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers.

“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,” said spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

House members backed the bill, which also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, by a near-unanimous margin of 419-3, with strong support from Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, despite objections from Trump, who wanted more control over the ability to impose sanctions.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed an earlier version of the bill with near-unanimous support. The House added the North Korea measures after becoming frustrated with the Senate’s failure to advance a bill it passed in May.

Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the three countries “are threatening vital U.S. interests and destabilizing their neighbors. It is well past time that we forcefully respond.”

But the combined bill has run into objections from some senators, who are unhappy that the House added the North Korea sanctions after holding up the measure for more than a month.

Senate leaders have not said when they might consider the House bill. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was not sure the bill would “fly through” his chamber.

“The only language we agreed to was Iran and Russia. So adding North Korea on, I just don’t know how we’re going to deal with it yet,” Corker told reporters. “The better route would have been to send over what had been agreed to.”

The bill had raised concerns in the European Union, where U.S. allies depend on supplies of Russian gas. But House members said the bill was tweaked to try to alleviate the worries of Europeans and the energy sector.

INVESTIGATIONS

The intense focus on Russia, involving several congressional probes and a separate investigation by a Justice Department-appointed special counsel, Robert Mueller, has overshadowed Trump’s agenda.

The scrutiny has angered and frustrated the president, who calls the investigations a politically motivated witch hunt fueled by Democrats who cannot accept his upset win in last November’s election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state.

Without offering evidence, Trump lashed out on Twitter on Tuesday about “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage” his presidential campaign in order to aid Clinton. The Ukrainian embassy in Washington denied the accusations.

The Senate Judiciary Committee had been set to compel Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to testify at a hearing on Wednesday, but rescinded the subpoena late on Tuesday as negotiations over his participation continued.

Manafort has started turning over documents to the committee and is negotiating a date to be interviewed, the panel said in a statement.

The committee is looking at a June 2016 meeting in New York with a Russian lawyer organized by Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. Trump Jr. released emails this month that showed he welcomed the prospect of receiving damaging information at the meeting about Clinton.

On Friday, the panel had asked that Manafort and Trump Jr. appear at the Wednesday hearing, but a witness list released on Tuesday evening included neither of their names.

Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff on Tuesday morning, his spokesman said.

On Tuesday, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent three hours with the House of Representatives intelligence panel, his second straight day on Capitol Hill answering questions about his contacts with Russians during the campaign.

Kushner had a “very productive session” with the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said after the meeting.

Republican Representative Michael Conaway said Kushner was “straightforward and forthcoming. He wanted to answer every question that we had.”

Kushner, who is now a top aide in Trump’s White House, told reporters on Monday he had no part in any Kremlin plot..

U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday rejected a legislative effort by Democrats to obtain Treasury Department documents that could show any ties between the finances of Trump, his inner circle and the Russian government.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Amanda Becker; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Steve Holland, Susan Cornwell, Susan Heavey and Karen Friefeld; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Grant McCool and Peter Cooney)

Rouhani says Iran will respond to any new U.S. sanctions

FILE PHOTO: Iran's national flags are seen on a square in Tehran February 10, 2012. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl/File Photo

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iran will reciprocate if the United States imposes new sanctions on it, president Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday according to state media, casting further doubt over the outlook for the 2015 Iran nuclear accord.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea, although it was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for President Donald Trump to sign into law or veto.

State media quoted Rouhani as citing a verse from the Koran saying: “If the enemy puts part of their promises underfoot then we will also put part of it underfoot. And if they put all of their promises underfoot then we will put promises underfoot.”

But he added: “The Koran also advises that if enemies are really pursuing peace and want to put enmity aside and act appropriately toward you, then you should do the same.”

He said that parliament would take the initial steps in responding to any U.S. moves and that any necessary further steps would also be pursued.

On Tuesday, Trump issued a veiled threat against Iran, warning it to adhere to the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal it signed together with world powers or else face “big, big problems.”

A week after certifying Iran as complying with the agreement negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama, Trump has made it clear that he remains extremely wary of Tehran.

The Iranian side appears equally wary of Washington, with a senior Revolutionary Guards commander issuing a similar threat in return on Wednesday.

“The Trump government, more than before, should be cautious and precise with their military approach in the Islamic revolution environment,” Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces was quoted by the Tasnim news site as saying on Wednesday.

“We will confront any American mischief with a response that will make them sorry,” he said.

The head of the Guards was quoted as saying last week that Washington should move its bases and avoid “miscalculations” over new sanctions against Tehran. The United States has bases in Qatar and Kuwait across the Gulf from Iran, while the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain.

(Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

U.S. likely to target more Chinese entities over North Korea ‘fairly soon’: official

FILE PHOTO: North Korean soldiers chat as they stand guard behind national flags of China (front) and North Korea on a boat anchored along the banks of Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, June 10, 2013. REUTERS/Jacky Chen

By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. sanctions aimed at curbing North Korean’s weapons programs, including measures aimed at Chinese financial institutions, can be expected “fairly soon,” a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

Asked when such sanctions could be expected and whether they could come within 30 days, Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told a Senate sub-committee hearing:

“We have been working on coming up with a new list of entities that we think are violating … I think you’ll see something fairly soon, yes.”

Thornton said the United States would prefer to cooperate with China in going after entities doing business with North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions.

“But we are perfectly prepared to act on our own,” she said.

“I think the Chinese are now very clear that we’re going to go after Chinese entities if need be, if we find them to be in violation, and if the Chinese feel they can’t cooperate in going after those targets.”

Thornton also said Washington was still considering whether to add North Korea back to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, from which it was removed in 2008 in exchange for progress in denuclearization talks.

“We are reviewing that issue right now … We are looking at the issue of designation,” she said, adding that she could not give a time frame for a decision.

Thornton said the United States had offered customs assistance to China to help stem illicit trade over its border with North Korea. “We are working on that with them, as are some of our like-minded allies in the region,” she said.

She said sanctions had affected North Korea’s ability to get materials for its weapons programs, but had not slowed its missile testing, as a lot of the production for this program was now indigenous.

“We are continuing to talk to China about that,” she said. “We’re continuing to try to impinge on sources of, particularly, hard currency, financing, but … it’s become harder and harder to stop this kind of activity in North Korea.”

U.S. officials said on Tuesday they had seen increased activity at a site in the western city of Kusong that could be preparations for another missile test within days.

U.S. officials told Reuters this month the Trump administration could impose new sanctions on small Chinese banks and other firms doing business with Pyongyang within weeks.

China’s Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai said on Tuesday secondary sanctions on Chinese firms were “unacceptable” and had “severely impaired” cooperation on North Korea.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by James Dalgleish)