The white house commented on the publication document from the U.S. Treasury, which States the sanctions regime against the Russian FSB. As stated by the press Secretary of the White house Sean Spicer, these actions are formal and do not signal the easing of sanctions, Reuters reports.
Answering a question of journalists, whether it is possible to regard this decree as a shift in policy towards Russia, Spicer replied: “No.” “I understand that this formal course of action”, he explained and advised to seek detailed comments to the U.S. Treasury.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Treasury published the so-called General license. The document allowed American companies interaction with the FSB as the regulator for the import to Russia of cryptographic IT products.
The document says that American businesses continue to be resolved “any transactions and actions”, normally required for obtaining and using licenses, permits and certificates from the FSB on the import into Russia of goods in the field of information technology.
At the end of last year, the decision of the Obama administration, the FSB has included in the sanctions list for alleged involvement in hacking attacks on the election process in the United States. American companies were prohibited from any commercial interaction with the service.
Polled by Reuters experts and former Obama administration officials confirmed that the U.S. Treasury exceptions are not a shift in the sanctions policy of Washington in relation to Moscow, and are designed only to eliminate the “unintended consequences” and sanctions actions. So, according to experts on sanctions and the former vysokopostavlennogo official gosdepartamenta of the USA Peter Harrell, exceptions, likely to have been prepared even before trump entered the office of the President.
