Why was Konstantin Kosachev, chair of the Russian Senate’s Foreign
Affairs Committee, so alarmed about a US law ostensibly aimed at North
Korea? After all, there had been no
blistering partisan debate preceding the vote. Instead, the bill was
handled under a “suspension of the rules” procedure usually applied to
noncontroversial legislation. And it passed with only one dissenting
vote (cast by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky).
