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The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to impose new sanctions on Russia and force President Donald Trump to obtain politicians' permission before easing any sanctions, in a rare rebuke of the Republican leader.
Key points:
- Bill still needs to be passed by Senate
- White House says it is reviewing the legislation
- Former Trump campaign manager begins cooperating with Committee
It was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for Mr Trump to sign into law or veto.
House members backed the legislation, which also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, by a near-unanimous margin of 419-3.
The overwhelming vote came despite objections from Mr Trump, who wanted more control over the ability to impose sanctions.
The White House said the President had not yet decided whether he would sign the measure.
"While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the President's desk," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
The bill still must be passed by the Senate, which is mired in debate over efforts to overhaul the US healthcare system as politicians try to clear the decks to leave Washington for their summer recess.
The sanctions push comes as politicians investigate possible meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by Mr Trump's campaign.
Moscow denied it worked to influence the election in Mr Trump's favour, and he denied his campaign colluded.
The bill had raised concerns in the European Union, where US allies depend on supplies of Russian gas.
But House members said the bill was tweaked to try to alleviate the worries of Europeans and the energy sector.
Manafort begins cooperating with committee
The intense focus on Russia, involving several congressional probes and a separate investigation by Justice Department-appointed special counsel, Robert Mueller, has overshadowed Mr Trump's agenda.
The scrutiny has angered and frustrated the President, who calls the investigations a politically motivated witch hunt fuelled by Democrats who cannot accept his upset win in last November's election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Without offering evidence, Mr Trump lashed out on Twitter on Tuesday about "Ukrainian efforts to sabotage" his presidential campaign in order to aid Clinton.
The Ukrainian embassy in Washington denied the accusations.
The Senate Judiciary Committee had been set to compel Mr Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to testify at a hearing on Wednesday, but rescinded the subpoena late on Tuesday as negotiations over his participation continued.
Mr Manafort started turning over documents to the committee and was negotiating a date to be interviewed, the panel said.
"Faced with issuance of a subpoena, we are happy that Mr Manafort has started producing documents to the Committee and we have agreed to continue negotiating over a transcribed interview," Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the panel, said in a statement.
The committee was looking at a June 2016 meeting in New York with a Russian lawyer organised by Mr Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
Mr Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff on Tuesday morning, his spokesman said.
Also on Tuesday, Mr Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent three hours with the House of Representatives intelligence panel, his second straight day on Capitol Hill answering questions about his contacts with Russians during the campaign.
Reuters
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, donald-trump, united-states, russian-federation
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