Kremlin on US Senate's Controversial Move: Sanctions Are Mutually 'Destructive'

Russia's stance on sanctions is well-known, they are mutually destructive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said commenting on a possible US Senate's adoption of a bill requiring the Congress' approval the lifting of sanctions from Russia.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of US senators led by Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Ben Cardin introduced a legislation granting Congress a veto right over any decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to lift anti-Russian sanctions. The initiative is led by Lindsey Graham and Ben Cardin, and supported by John McCain, Marco Rubio, Claire McCaskill, Sherrod Brown.

The Russia Review Act would require the White House to explain to Congress the reasons behind lifting any of the sanctions imposed on Russia, and would trigger a 120-day review process. The Trump administration would require the consent of both the House and Senate before any of the sanctions could be lifted.

"Our stance on sanctions and the exchange of various restrictions is well known: we consider this policy to be rather destructive, which does reciprocal harm. We have nothing to add," Peskov told reporters.

During the presidential race, as well as after his victory in the vote on January 20, Trump has repeatedly stressed the necessity to mend ties with Russia and cooperate with Moscow on a number of international issues, including the fight against terrorism.

On Wednesday, Konstantin Kosachev, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian upper house of parliament, told Sputnik that the US Senate’s veto power on lifting anti-Russia sanctions by the US presidential administration would impede normalization of relations between the two countries. He added that "the authors of this project are five most anti-Russian senators… for whom a a change of the US stance on Russia would have been a personal failure and maybe even a collapse of their carrers."