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Washington T he Trump administration said yesterday it would not immediately impose additional sanctions on Russia, despite a new law designed to punish Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, insisting the measure was already hitting Russian companies. “Today, we have informed Congress that this legislation and its implementation are deterring Russian defence sales,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. “Since the enactment of the ... legislation, we estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defence acquisitions.” Seeking to press President Donald Trump to clamp down on Russia, the U.S. Congress voted nearly unanimously last year to pass a law setting sweeping new sanctions on Moscow. Trump, who wanted warmer ties with Moscow and had opposed the legislation as it worked its way through Congress, signed it reluctantly in August, just six months into his presidency. Under the measure, the administration faced a deadline on Monday to impose sanctions on anyone determined to conduct significant business with Russian defense and intelligence sectors, already sanctioned for their alleged role in the election. “From that perspective, if the law is working, sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent,” she said in a statement. The measure, known as the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,” or CAATSA, required the administration to list “oligarchs” close to President Vladimir Putin’s government and issue a report detailing possible consequences of penalizing Russia’s sovereign debt. (Reuters) BUSINESS Wednesday, January 31, 2018 9 Saudi Aramco considering expansion to India S audi Aramco, the state oil company of Saudi Arabia, is considering entering India as part of its Asian expansion, Nikkei said yesterday, citing Aramco’s CEO who said that plans for an Indian refinery are crystallising. “Saudi Aramco is looking at additional investments in China, and India is also a very important destination which we are giving great consideration, and (where we are) currently in discussion with some companies,” Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told the Nikkei Asian Review in an interview. The Saudi government has said it plans to sell about 5 percent of Aramco, hoping to raise some $100 billion or more in what would likely be the world’s biggest initial public offer (IPO). “At the moment, we are prepared for a listing in the second half of 2018,” Nasser confirmed to Nikkei. Saudi officials have said they may list Aramco on one or more foreign markets such as New York, London and Hong Kong in addition to Riyadh, which would boost the company’s global profile and reduce the strain on the Saudi market. (Reuters) © GRAPHIC NEWS Sources: Rocket Lab, California Polytechnic State University Dipole antenna system. Each antenna unfolds up to 55cm in length Payload UHF/VHF radio Basic unit (1U) Can be joined to form larger units (2U, 6U, 24U etc.) 1U weight: 1.33kg Flight control computer Electrical power system NLAS (Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System) P-Pod (Poly Picosat Orbital deployer) CubeSat Standard format structure Solar panel P-Pod typically contains three CubeSat units 10cm 10cm 10cm CubeSats drive commercial space race C ubeSats are ultra-small spacecraft weighing 1.3kg or less. Most CubeSats piggyback to orbit on big, expensive rockets – but affordable rocket technology is launching a new generation of space start-ups. In the past satellites have been built and launched by multibillion- dollar companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences Corporation. That began to change in January 2014 when Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft carried 33 nanosatellites to the International Space Station, ISS. These tiny satellites, built to the CubeSat standard format -- a 10cm cube weighing 1.3kg or less -- were launched from the ISS a month later. Since 2014 more than 650 CubeSats, including 295 last year, have been launched into low- Earth orbit, performing services including tracking shipping and monitoring weather, crops, cattle and pollution. CubeSats usually hitch a ride into space as secondary payloads aboard large rockets, which are expensive — an Atlas 5 rocket launch costs around $109 million, while SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 costs $62 million a time. Now, U.S. company Rocket Lab has launched three CubeSats into orbit from a private launch pad in New Zealand. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder, says his two-stage Electron rocket brings the cost of reaching orbit down to $5 million a launch. “Our rocket is one of the tools that is enabling much more access to space,” says Beck. “Space is tipping from a government dominated domain to a commercial domain.” Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates the space market is worth around $340 billion, calling it “one of the final frontiers of investing.” BofAML sees the space industry ballooning over the next three decades, to at least $2.7 trillion. Trump holds off on new Russia sanctions Representative picture show- ing Trump and Puting Putin defines US move as ‘hostile’ Moscow R ussian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday the Trump administration made a “hostile step” when it published a list of Russian businessmen and politicians as part of a sanctions law against Moscow. The long-awaited U.S. publication appears to be mainly a list of people in Russian government, along with 96 “oligarchs” from a Forbes magazine ranking of Russian billionaires. The list, ordered by Congress in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, had induced fear among rich Russians that it could lead to U.S. sanctions or being informally blacklisted in the global financial system. Putin on Tuesday referred to the list as a “hostile step” — but said Moscow does not want to make the situation even worse. “We were waiting for this list to come out, and I’m not going to hide it: we were going to take steps in response, and, mind you, serious steps, that could push our relations to the nadir. But we’re going to refrain from taking these steps for now,” Putin said. The Russian president said he does not expect the publication to have any impact but expressed dismay at the scope of the officials and business people listed. “Ordinary Russian citizens, employees and entire industries are behind each of those people and companies, so all 146 million people have essentially been put on this list,” Putin said at a campaign event in Moscow. “What is the point of this? I don’t understand.” Russia hawks in Congress had pushed the administration to include certain names, while Russian businessmen hired lobbyists to keep them off. In the end, the list of 114 Russian politicians released just before a Monday evening deadline included the whole of Putin’s administration, as listed by the Kremlin on its website, plus the Russian cabinet, all top law enforcement officials and chief executives of the main state- controlled companies. President Putin even joked on Tuesday that he felt “slighted” that his name wasn’t there. Amin Nasser
