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The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly passed a sanctions bill targeting Russia, with full support by the Republican and Democratic Parties. This comes when the two parties have never been so unified when passing a bill during the past twenty years, an Armenian expert said at a discussion on Monday.

“This was the total victory by the Congress. The adoption of this bill first of all had an internal political importance. Since Donald Trump took the office as the U.S. President, his administration has failed to pass any serious bill till this one,” Areg Galstyan, PhD, regular contributor to The National Interest, Forbes, The Hill and The American Thinker, noted.

Yerevan-based political analyst Stepan Grigoryan, in attendance of the discussion, in his turn noted that the tenser the Russian-U.S. relations become, the greater influence they will have in Armenia, leading to escalated political clashes in the country.

“Whatever is good for Russia is not necessarily good also for Armenia. What we see in the U.S.  is a classical example of democracy. President [Donald] Trump’s many views are not shared even the members of his own party and the other Congressmen. However, the counterbalance mechanism works in the United States. Russia’s economic conditions will deteriorate amid new fresh U.S. sanctions. That country will pay decreased attention to Armenia, only focusing on its own protection,” Mr. Grigoryan underlined.

Economist Vilen Khachatryan, present at the meeting, said that the respective sanctions by Russia and the U.S. fit into the logic of “slap me, I slap back”, which does not benefit neither of the sides.

“The new U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia will especially impact the employment migrants. Amid the emerging economic hardships, they will be the first to lose their jobs. And it is a well-known fact that a large number of Armenia migrants are working in Russia,” the speaker added.