U.S. Senate gearing up to vote on Russia sanctions bill, despite concerns from Trump

The United States Senate will vote on Thursday on a bill that would impose new sanctions on Russia, a U.S. senator said, legislation that has angered Moscow who have threatened to retaliate against the measure.

Senator Mike Enzi said the upper house would vote on the legislation, which also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

The measure has already passed the House of Representatives by a 419-3. It is expected to garner strong support in the Senate, despite concerns about it from U.S. President Donald Trump.

If the bill passes the Senate, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. It is, however, expected to garner enough support to override a Trump veto.

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The bill threatens to further derail U.S.-Russian relations, which deteriorated under former President Barack Obama. U.S. President Donald Trump had hoped to improve ties but his administration has been clouded by investigations of Russian election meddling. Trump denies any collusion between his campaign and Moscow.

Trump’s concerns include a provision letting Congress stop any effort to ease existing sanctionson Russia.

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Republicans and Democrats have pushed for more sanctions partly as a response to conclusions by U.S. intelligence agencies that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election campaign to help Trump.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly denied meddling in the election, said Moscow would only decide on how to retaliate once it had seen the final text of the proposed law.

The bill would affect a range of Russian industries and might further hurt the Russian economy, already weakened by 2014 sanctions imposed after the Ukraine crisis.

Besides angering Moscow, the proposed legislation has upset the European Union, which has said the new sanctions might affect its energy security and prompt it to act, too.