WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law Friday a Russian trade and human rights bill that Russia's president sharply criticized this week.
The measure opens new export opportunities for American businesses. But one section would punish Russian officials who allegedly commit human rights violations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the bill “a politicized and unfriendly act.”
The bill establishes permanent normal trade relations with Russia and eliminates a long-obsolete 1974 provision that tied trade relations with the former Soviet Union to the emigration of Jews and other Soviet minorities.
