Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA)

Posted By
10Pointer
Categories
World Affairs
Published
11th Jul, 2022

Context

Recently, US Democratic Representative stated that the US government must not impose sanctions on India under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for its purchase of the S-400 missile weapons system from Russia.

About CAATSA

CAATSA is a law that came into effect in the US in 2017, meant to punish countries having deep engagements with Russia, North Korea, and Iran using economic sanctions.
It said countries having a “significant transaction” with Russian intelligence and military agents will be subject to at least five kinds of sanctions.
Ordinary transactions will not invite sanctions, and the decision of who has sanctions imposed on them comes down to the interpretation of “significant transaction”.
This is one of the various waivers or exemptions mentioned, such as the transaction not affecting US strategic interests, not endangering the alliances it is a part of, etc.

S-400 missile weapons

The S-400 is a mobile long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) system developed by Almaz-Antey, a Russian state-owned enterprise.
It possesses the capability to take down multiple aerial targets including stealth fighter jets, bombers, cruise and ballistic missiles, and even unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
It possesses four different kinds of missiles that can engage beyond visual range (BVR) targets up to a range of 400 kilometres and it also carries two separate radar systems, which can detect aerial targets to a range of 600 kilometres and can simultaneously engage 80 aerial targets.

Section 231 of the law

It notifies 39 Russian entities, including all the major defence companies like Rosoboronexport, Sukhoi Aviation, Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG, transactions with whom could invite sanctions.
Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defence Corporation JSC, who have made the S-400 system, are in this list.

Sanctions applied

In 2020, Turkey was sanctioned for its purchase of the S-400 system. Turkey had ignored repeated reminders to not go ahead with the purchase, and was, therefore, sanctioned.

Sections

12 sanctions: It contains 12 types of sanctions. Of these, 2 sanctions may impact India’s relations with either Russia or the US. These are-

Prohibition of Banking transactions: India would not be able to make payments in US Dollars to Russia for the purchase of the S-400 systems.
Export sanctions: As it will deny the licence for, and export of, any items controlled by the US to the sanctioned person.

It has the potential to completely derail the India-US Strategic and Defence partnership.

How CAATSA came into effect?

The US flagged issues of Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 Presidential elections, and its role in the Syrian war as some of the reasons for punishing engagement with it.
EU countries that had even more significant ties with Russia for oil and gas supply before the Ukraine-Russia conflict in 2022, had also criticised CAATSA.

Countries facing sanctions

The US has placed sanctions on China and Turkey for purchase of the S-400.
The sanctions included denial of export licences, ban on foreign exchange transactions, blocking of all property and interests in property within the US jurisdiction and a visa ban.