Yesterday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to stop normal trade relations with Putin's Russia and its puppet ally Belarus under the "most favored nation" designation for favorable tariff and trade terms. The vote was a bipartisan 424 to 8, the eight being the usual suspects of hard core authoritarian, neo-fascist Republicans: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. What's surprising is that a few more far-right Putin caucus Republicans didn't join them, like Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Rep. Jim "Gym" Jordan of Ohio.
The bill would further isolate and damage Russia's economy by imposing higher tariffs on its goods, although with severe sanctions already in place, the additional tariff sanctions will have limited effect. The legislation moves to the Senate, where last week 31 Republicans voted against providing $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and then hypocritically said the U.S. should be providing more aid to Ukraine, hoping their voters wouldn't notice.
BONUS: Regardless of his vote yesterday, Rep. Cawthorn has been on heavy rotation on Russian state media for his attack on Ukrainian President Zelenskyy earlier this month.
(photo: Four of the Putin Caucus, l. to r., Boebert, Gaetz, Taylor Greene, Massie. Getty Images / Anna Moneymaker)
