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Eastern Europe
October 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
which protect ordinary people today in the loudest manner "have taken loans the most" in the past. "$54bn dollars is the total debt inherited from today's 'fighters for the truth' in 2007-2013,
when the relevant political forces had power. Now, someone has to clean after them, I mean give money back," Poroshenko said, hinting at Tymoshenko.
Ruble overreacts to Bolton's comments on Russian sanctions
bne IntelliNews
The Russian ruble got a bump of 0.7-1% against US dollar and euro on the trading day of October 24, after US National Security Advisor John Bolton said Washington is " not considering new Russia sanctions right now," during a visit to Moscow.
Russian assets and outlook have been under pressure since August from the risk of additional tough sanctions that are part of a draft bill due
to be debated by the US Congress later this year. However, the full transcript of Bolton's comments that became available later same day showed no reasons to dismiss concerns.
Apparently Bolton, a top White House official and long standing Russia-hawk, was only referring to addition sanctions for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal on British soil, and not the draft law awaiting reading by Congress.
“We are still considering what we may be obli- gated to do under a statute related to chemical weapons attack,” Bolton said, as cited by Bloomb- erg. “No decision has been made at this point.”
Apart from Skripal related sanctions, the White House mildly expanded the Russian sanctions regime on September 21 under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was passed by the Congress as response to Russia's involvement in the separatist conflict in Ukraine, alleged cyberattacks and elec- tion meddling.
The update to the CAATSA sanctions was the second unilateral sanction move by the White House since August, and was seen as a tactical move by the Trump administration to show it was actively punish- ing Russia in an attempt to forestall Congress from adopting more and even more radical measures.
A decision by Congress is still pending on poten- tial "nuclear" and "crushing" sanctions options: the Defending American Security Against Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKAA) and Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines Act (DE- TER) that target Russian sovereign debt, state banks and energy majors.
Previous unconfirmed reports claimed that the US Congress is unlikely to pass any new sanctions until after the November 6 mid-term elections. Apart from the results of the elections, as well as the degree of alleged Russian interference, the possible meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Paris on November 11 will be key for assessing sanction risks.
The sanction ramp-up was originally the reaction to Trump siding with Putin on all critical issues at their previous meetings in July's in Helsinki, which had prominent Republican US senators calling for more measures against on Russia. Whatever the resolution in November, the mar- ket's knee-jerk reaction to Bolton's comments shows that strong ruble movements are to be expected.