Kathrine Frich
For the two senators the escalations require a rapid response.
When a massive piece of legislation gets signed, the clock immediately starts ticking.
Bureaucracies usually prefer to take their time and wait for official deadlines before making sudden moves.
But in the middle of a global conflict, waiting around is a luxury that some politicians refuse to accept.
Pushing for action
Two prominent American lawmakers are pressuring the White House to act right now. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker want the Trump administration to enforce the newly passed Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. They see no reason to wait for the official start date on October 18.
In a letter shared with the Kyiv Independent, the bipartisan duo made their case for immediate financial warfare. They pointed to recent Russian attacks on civilian grids in Ukraine. The sudden arrival of North Korean troops on the battlefield also triggered their alarm.
For these two senators, those escalations require a rapid economic response. They want Washington to aggressively target the networks funding the foreign war machine.
Chasing the ghost ships
A major part of their demand involves the oceans. The lawmakers want the United States to catch up with its European allies in hunting down the shadow fleet. This network of unregistered tankers secretly transports oil and keeps cash flowing into Moscow.
Right now, the European Union and the United Kingdom have blacklisted more than 600 of these rogue vessels. The American government has only officially designated 216 of them.
That regulatory gap allows hundreds of tankers to slip through the cracks. Shaheen and Wicker argue that matching the European list will deal a crushing blow. A Washington blacklist cuts these ships off from the global dollar system.
Closing the loopholes
The push does not stop at the sea. The senators also want to shut down backroom deals happening in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. Russian oil giants currently use brokers in those regions to hide their money from Western authorities.
They also demanded secondary penalties against parts suppliers operating in China and Turkey. These vendors sell microchips and machine tools that eventually become Russian drones and ammunition.
Space technology is firmly on the target list too. The lawmakers urged officials to penalize companies building a new Russian satellite network. Finally, they warned that American institutions must not fund any upcoming deals involving Russian state assets.
