Russia’s use of chemical weapons against its main opposition leader and the Turkish president’s “provocative” and “destabilizing” comments about Cyprus took center stage Tuesday as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on President Joe Biden’s nominees for State Department posts.
The nominees include Karen Donfried for assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Mary Catherine Phee for assistant secretary of State for African Affairs, Anne Witkowsky for assistant secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations and coordinator for Reconstruction and Development, and Paloma Adams-Allen for deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the committee chair, questioned at the outset of the hearing why the Biden administration was slow to fully implement Section 231 of the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” or CAATSA, which was passed in 2017 to counter Russian aggression. Menendez said the White House should have imposed sanctions on Russia for its role in the 2020 poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.