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A resolution to oppose the Trump administration’s decision to reduce sanctions against Russia stalled in the Senate Wednesday, even as several Republican broke with the party’s leadership to back the legislation.
The Senate failed to cut off debate on the resolution. The vote was 57-42, but it needed 60 yeas to end debate, and so fell short.
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Eleven Republicans had broken with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday to vote to start debate on the resolution. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with Republicans and defend the decision to remove some of the sanctions.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mnuchin said, "We have been tougher on Russia with more sanctions than any other administration." He said the sanctions "shouldn't be a political issue."
The resolution had been crafted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who said the resolution told “Putin he can’t run the show no matter what President Trump and his administration try to do.”
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"If Republican senators agree with Leader McConnell, who said that Putin is a ‘thug’ – they’ll vote yes tomorrow,” he said Tuesday.
The resolution called for maintaining sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The measure would block a Treasury Department move, announced in December, to lift penalties against the aluminum manufacturing giant Rusal and two other companies connected to Deripaska.
The Treasury Department says the Russian companies have committed to separating from Deripaska, who will remain blacklisted as part of an array of measures announced in early April that targeted tycoons close to the Kremlin. It also warns that the sanctions could upset global aluminum markets.
Schumer called the Treasury Department decision "sanctions relief for President [Vladimir] Putin's trusted agents."
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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