The White House emphasizes that it does not refer to the cancellation of sanctions against Russia – Voice of America reports.
US Ministry of Finance announced about the relief of sanctions, imposed at the end of last December against the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
The document, published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department on Tuesday morning, cancels several points of US President orders. President Barack Obama signed the orders, prohibiting any financial transactions with FSS, on April 1 and December 28 of the previous year. Except for the Federal Security Service, the chiefs of the Main Intelligence Directorate (MID), five agencies and six individuals were included into the sanction list.
According to amendments, promulgated by US Treasury Department, US companies are permitted again to apply to FSS for obtaining licenses, permits and certificates on importing household appliances and software to RF. US companies may spend up to USD 5,000 per year in total for such licenses.
The relief of sanctions will not touch the Crimea: as before, US companies are prohibited from exporting any goods, services and technologies to the peninsular territory.
During the daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer highlighted that it does not refer to the cancellation of sanctions, imposed against Moscow after the Crimea annexation. According to him, the decision of US Treasury Department is aimed at correcting “some discrepancies”, made by the previous administration while developing sanction documents.
«We do not relieve sanctions, - Spicer said, - as I understand, it is a common practice for US Treasury Department to turn back to this question after imposing sanctions and check if some exclusions are needed for certain branches of trade and commodities».
US President briefly commented on OFAC decision. Responding to the journalists’ question during the meeting with Harley Davidson representatives in the White House, Donald Trump denied the assertion on possible cancellation of sanctions against Russia.
«I have not relieved anything», he asserted.
As US Senior Administration Official explained to the Russian service of Voice of America, sanction documents were insignificantly revised after multiple appeals from US companies, working in Russia. On the next day, after President Obama approved the new sanction list, US Treasury Department started receiving complaints from business executives.
According to Russian legislation, the import of any household appliances, having encryption function, to RF is subject to obligatory FSS certification. Except for cellular phones, tablets, laptops and other similar equipment, this list also includes software. After the imposition of new sanctions, US companies were prohibited from having any commercial relations with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, which made it impossible to run business in Russia.
The administration representative told that the Treasury Department started receiving first appeals from business executives on December 30, 2016. In several days, the department started holding consultations with market players, trying to find the most acceptable way out.
In the end, it was decided to introduce «insignificant technical amendments»! to the document, which will allow continuing exporting commodities and technologies, not falling under sanctions. According to the administration representative, the time of publication of amendments is not connected with coming of the new administration to the White House: amendments were introduced to the document, after the consultations with business representatives and experts were completed.
As the representative of administration emphasized, similar amendments were introduced to sanction documents «not for the first and not for the last time». It refers not to the revision of sanctions package, but all other strict financial, technological and visa measures, imposed against Russia, continue functioning.
