Donald Trump finally announces sanctions against Russia

Donald Trump today called it a ‘very sad situation.’ The ‘it’ in question is of course the chemical weapons attack in Salisbury, a fresh indicator, if one were needed, of malign Russian intentions toward the West. Even as Theresa May plays, or tries to play, Margaret Thatcher, Trump has been no Ronald Reagan. He doesn’t want anyone ‘Russian to judgment. Instead, when it comes to Moscow, he’s been missing in action, no friend of the United Kingdom. He’s sounded in fact more like the equivocating Jeremy Corbyn than anyone else when it comes to the brouhaha over Salisbury.

So the announcement this morning that the Trump administration will institute fresh sanctions, as mandated by Congress, against 19 Russian individuals—13 of whom were previously indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller—and five Russian entities came as something of a surprise. The St. Petersburg Institute for Internet Research, however, is hardly quaking over the new sanctions.