The Trump administration has amended the Obama-era sanctions against Russia specifically for “certain transactions with the Federal Security Service.” The FSB (the Russian acronym) is the successor organization to the KGB. In other words, it’s the main Russian spy agency. I would think I’m missing something but the former US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, seems to think it’s odd too.
This Moscow Times article from a few days ago suggests that the restrictions could affect imports of US electronics to Russia. So perhaps it’s not as alarming as it sounds, merely avoiding unintended consequences which are unrelated to in some fashion helping the Russian spy agency. But, again, seems odd.
Certainly something we’d like to know more about.
Late Update: There seems to be some dispute on this among foreign policy types. Here’s one argument that it is not weakening sanctions. The argument here is that all electronics exports to Russia must be approved, licensed by the FSB. Thus the sanctions – perhaps as an unintended consequence – effectively prevented all US exports to Russia because of the FSB’s licensing role. I can’t say whether this is the whole story but it is an argument put forward but what appears to be a credible expert in the field. We’ll keep trying to find fuller information.
Later Update: Julia Ioffe appears to be hearing a similar explanation.
