Congress Needs To Restore Proposed Sanctions Against Russian Intelligence Services- Pelosi

Faizan Hashmi Published July 03, 2020 | 01:40 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2020) Congress should restore targeted sanctions against Russia's intelligence services that were removed earlier at the insistence of the Trump administration, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday after receiving a classified briefing on Russia's alleged intelligence activities in Afghanistan.

"When Congress in a bipartisan way passed sanctions on Russia, the administration told us to take out the sanctions on GRU [Russian military intelligence service], the intelligence as well as the defense sectors of Russia. Those should definitely still be there," Pelosi said. "We must institute sanctions against Russia and we must to do it right away."

Pelosi was speaking after attending a classified intelligence briefing on allegations reported in the New York Times last week that some US intelligence claimed Russia was working with militants in Afghanistan who were targeting US and NATO soldiers.

President Donald Trump denied being briefed on the matter because US intelligence told him the allegations were neither substantiated nor verified.

Trump said the article was part of the narrative attempted to create a new Russia hoax and make Republicans look bad in an election year.

Russian officials have flatly denied the allegations as false and an attempt to prevent improving US-Russia relations while serving domestic political purposes.

Pelosi acknowledged that there was no "100 percent consensus" on the most recent US intelligence claims - relayed by unnamed intelligence officials to he media - that Russia offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to assassinate US and coalition soldiers in Afghanistan.

"What is important to us is the United States' relationship with Russia when the White House was aware of this threat to our people in uniform, the White House was still flirting with having Russia back in the G8 [Group of Eight] major industrialized nations, Pelosi said.