Senate to pass bill on sanctions against Russia if no progress in talks - Rubio
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that if no progress is made in the peace talks, the Senate will pass a bill on sanctions against Russia.
He said this in an interview with CBS News, Censor.NET reports.
According to the diplomat, the Donald Trump administration had previously asked the Senate to give it some time to see if progress would be made in the peace talks.
"We have asked the Senate to give us some time to see if we can make progress in the negotiations on Ukraine. If there is no progress, the Senate will pass a bill on sanctions against Russia," the US official said.
Rubio said that the US has already informed Russia that if no progress is made in negotiations on the war in Ukraine, Congress will pass a sanctions bill.
"We told them that this process(of imposing sanctions - ed.) has already been launched. We expected that when everything was completed, the bill would have almost 80 co-sponsors in the Senate, and I think about the same level of support in the House of Representatives. We explained that this is an initiative that we cannot stop and do not control," Rubio said.
He added that Congress, especially the Republicans in the House and Senate, had tried to give President Trump space and time to negotiate.
"But we have repeatedly, for almost two months now, warned the Russians that this (imposition of sanctions - ed.) will happen if there is no progress. And I think that right now it is starting to be realised. And this is one of the things that I reiterated this week when I was in Turkey with Lindsey Graham: they (Republicans - ed.) have 77 signatures already. He thinks they can get to 80 or even more. And it's just a fact that we've been telling the Russians for weeks that this is going to happen," the State Department chief said.
