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© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
The threat of sanctions is putting enough pressure on Russia for now, but new penalties may hit Moscow's arms trade partners abroad, the Trump administration says, adding there are more details in a classified report to Congress.

Monday was the date set for the administration to begin imposing sanctions under the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), adopted with overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate last July.

"Today, we have informed Congress that this legislation and its implementation are deterring Russian defense sales," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. Since the law was enacted "we estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions," she added.


Comment: Has anyone in the State Dept. been paying attention to Russian military agreements with other countries over the past year?


Members of Congress were informed in a classified briefing, according to a statement cited by Politico reporter Elana Schor.

Under CAATSA, the US has been putting foreign governments and private entities "on notice," warning them against "significant transactions" with Russia. This, according to the State Department, is pressuring Russia to address the allegations Washington has been throwing at Russia for the past few years: "aggression in Ukraine, interference in other nations' domestic affairs and abuses of human rights."

"When and if we have sanctions to announce, we will do so," it added. Even so, the measures would be primarily aimed against "non-Russian entities that are responsible for significant transactions with Russia's defense and intelligence sector."

The goal of the sanctions would be to deny Moscow the profits from selling Russian military and intelligence equipment, Nauert explained.