Will the Senate Get Tough on Russia?

American sanctions on Russia—the Magnitsky Act, in particular—probably motivated the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election. But in the wake of the summit in Helsinki, and facing the threat of Russian meddling in the 2018 midterms, the Senate is now mulling even more sanctions. The New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser spoke with Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, who is a co-sponsor (with Marco Rubio of Florida) of the DETER Act—“Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines.” The legislation says that, if the Director of National Intelligence determines that a foreign power has interfered in an election, that finding would trigger a series of crippling sanctions on key sectors of the adversary nation’s economy. That’s an action far harsher than anything the President has done to respond to the threat of Russia. Van Hollen tells Glasser that, on Russia, the gap between the President and his party continues to widen.