

The penalties come despite President Donald Trump's efforts to improve relations with Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, and his harsh criticism of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the U.S. move runs contrary to a "constructive" atmosphere at the Trump-Putin summit last month, and he strongly denied any Russian role in the poisoning in Britain.
"In our view, these and earlier restrictions are absolutely unlawful and don't conform to international law," Peskov said.
The U.S. made a similar determination in February when it found that North Korea used a chemical weapon to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half brother at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2017.
The U.S. had joined Britain in condemning Russia for the Skripal poisoning and joined with European nations in expelling Russian diplomats in response, but it had yet to make the formal determination that the Russian government had "used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law or has used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals."
British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the U.S. decision. Her Downing Street office issued a statement saying the move sends "an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative, reckless behavior will not go unchallenged."
Peskov insisted that "there can't be any talk about Russia having any relation to the use of chemical weapons," adding that Britain has failed to present any evidence to back the claim and stonewalled Russia's proposal for a joint probe.
The Russian Embassy in Washington said the "draconian" new sanctions against Russia weren't backed by any facts or evidence, noting that while the U.S. said it has enough information to conclude that Russia is to blame, it refused to disclose what it has, saying the information is classified.
Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Thursday that the U.S. has behaved like a "police state, threatening and torturing a suspect to get evidence." He added that the new sanctions amount to "inflicting a punishment in the absence of a crime in the tradition of lynch law."
Leonid Slutsky, the head of the lower house's foreign affairs committee, denounced the sanctions as a manifestation of "unbridled Russophobia" and mockery of international law, saying that Russia may respond with countersanctions.
He insisted that Russia's financial system is strong enough to withstand shocks from the new penalties.
Lawmakers praised Wednesday's announcement.
"The administration is rightly acting to uphold international bans on the use of chemical weapons," said Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Royce had previously accused Trump of ignoring the Russian nerve agent attack.
While criticized as too keen to strike up a friendship with Putin, Trump maintains that he's been tough on Moscow. His administration has sanctioned a number of Russian officials and oligarchs for human rights abuses and election meddling.
In March, the Trump administration ordered 60 Russian diplomats — all of whom it said were spies — to leave the United States and closed down Russia's consulate in Seattle in response to the Skripal case. The U.S. said at the time it was the largest expulsion of Russian spies in American history.
Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. This story has been corrected to show that Sergei Skripal didn't die in the attack and that Salisbury is a city, not a town.