What did Washington's new Russia sanctions signal in August 2018?
A look back at the sanctions the United States imposed on Russia after the Salisbury Novichok poisoning, as the reports stood on 9 August 2018.
What was the state of pressure on Moscow on 9 August 2018? It came after a run of measures from Washington, reported in the preceding days.
On 8 August 2018, the United States imposed new sanctions on Russia over the use of a Novichok nerve agent in the United Kingdom, where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned. The measures were among the reactions to the attack. As reported at the time, the UK had said a day earlier, on 7 August 2018, that it would seek the extradition from Russia of suspects in the case.
The sanctions followed another step a few days before. On 3 August 2018, the United States sanctioned a Russian bank that had facilitated a transaction for a North Korean who was on an American blacklist.
Taken together, the two reported decisions, one tied to the Skripal poisoning and one to a North Korean transaction, showed Washington adding to its list of measures against Russian targets within a single week. The extradition request from London was a separate, parallel track in the same case.
