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Russian politicians are up in arms over the freshly approved U.S. sanctions bill on Russia, warning of severe damage to ties with Washington and also taking swipes at the man they once hoped would loosen pressure on MoscowPresident Donald Trump.

This is a new stage of confrontation, Russian senator Alexey Pushkov wrote on Twitter Tuesday night. The law on new sanctions is approved. Trump will sign it, confirming that he is a hostage to Congress and anti-Russian hysteria.

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The outspoken foreign policy commentator from Russian President Vladimir Putins United Russia party claimed Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he wants to get along with Moscow, now stood for the principles of his predecessor Barack Obama and his rival Hillary Clinton.

The sanctions bill on Russia, approved with near unanimous support in the House of Representatives seeks to give Congress, not the White House, the right to lift restrictive measures on doing business with companies close to the Kremlin. The measures have been in place since 2014, as punishment for Russias annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Congress approved the bill at a time when Trumps sympathies for Russia and his teams repeated contacts with Russian government-linked figures is causing mass suspicion in the U.S.

Trump is forced to carry out Obamas policy, being turned into H. Clinton, Pushkov wroteWednesday morning.

The sanctions bill has found momentum as U.S. politicians and the intelligence community agree that Russia attempted to interfere in last years presidential election that resulted in Trumps victory.

Russias reaction to the bill, if not symmetrical, should be painful for the Americans, Senator Konstantin Kosachev, head of the International Affairs Committee wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. After the Congress vote was published, which was heavily in favor of sanctions (419 for and three against), Kosachev concluded prospects for a warming of ties looked bleak.

Dialog will not happen, that will be so for a while. And President Trump will not handle his Congress, Kosachev said. Hope dies last but it is dying.

He accused the U.S. of not accepting its own election result, claiming the world's policeman now resembles a capricious child. To avoid isolation, he claimed Russian politicians will now seek council with EU nations, whose energy deals with Russia may be affected by a new provision in the sanctions bill.

Lets not be under any illusion, they will not be our allies, Kosachev said. but, for the sake of economic interests, he suggested at least a msalliance is possible.

Chances for a diplomatic breakthrough between Russia and the U.S. are now reduced to a severely low level, Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian lower houses International Affairs Committee told state news agency Itar-Tass. The same, anti-Russian flywheel, released under Obama, continues to crush all in its path.

Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov called for Russia to react without emotions, as he too lambasted the decision, without specifying any actual policy aims, .

What is happening [is] beyond the bounds of sound reason, Ryabkov told Tass on Wednesday.

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Russia Sanctions: Donald Trump is Hostage to Congress And Like Hillary Clinton, Moscow Says - Newsweek

Rev. Bill Shillady met President Bill and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton for Easter brunch in April 2015, and from that point on he would lend his support during what became one of the most acrimonious presidential campaigns in American history. He offered to send her a devotion every day, and she agreed.

Each morning, he began sending words of encouragement and quotes from Scripture, sometimes based on the events of the previous days. He wrote them himself for three months; then enlisted the help of about 20 other clergy and laypeople who contributed devotions. Today, 365 of the over 600 devotions written for Clinton are collected in Strong For a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Abingdon, Aug. 15).

She said that it was the first email she read every day, Shillady told PW. She often told me the devotions and prayers from many who supported her helped her get through the darkest times of the campaign.

Clinton, he noted, has roots in the Methodist church, attending Park Ridge United Methodist Church as a young person living in Illinois. Her Methodist roots go very deep, said the reverend. She is a person of faith and though she doesnt wear it on her sleeve, in my heart of hearts I know she is a true disciple of Christ.

Clinton first met Shillady at a 9/11 memorial in 2002. Later, with her daughter Chelsea, Clinton attended Park Avenue United Methodist Church, where Shillady was pastor on New Yorks Upper East Side. Both their friendship and the book came as a surprise to Shillady, who said he never planned on publishing the devotions written to Clinton.

I wrote the book because she encouraged me to, said Shillady, who is now CEO and executive director of the United Methodist City Society in NYC. Right after the election I had a long, poignant phone call with Secretary Clinton and she said the nation needed to read these.

She agreed to write the foreword, and Shillady approached Abingdon Press, the publishing arm of the United Methodist denomination.

This partnership made sense to everyone involved and we were thrilled to be part of this project, said Tamara Crabtree, executive director, marketing and sales for Abingdon Press.

Abingdon and public relations firm DVL Seigenthaler, hired to assist with national media, are targeting all major morning and evening shows on big networkssuch as CBS, ABC, and NBCas well as news channels such as CNN. They are also targeting news outlets such as NPR, the Washington Post, New York Times, the Atlantic and others for interviews with Shillady and other coverage.

The publisher is also in the process of securing coverage on major Christian outlets such as Sojourners and the Christian Century, as well as radio and television programs and podcasts, according to Crabtree.

Further, Abingdon is working closely with brick-and-mortar and online retailers, including Barnes & Noble. Were working with each retailerwhether indie stores, national chains, or online retailersto craft promotional packages and in-store displays based on their needs, she said.

A robust online and social media promotional campaign is also planned for the books release. We're reaching out to fan groups such as Pantsuit Nation and others [for review coverage and support] through online advertising and social media campaigns," she said, also mentioning Clinton's own Facebook page as a contact point.

Based on the response weve already received, were looking at a second print run, said Crabtree, who declined to reveal the initial print run. This is a strong book telling the story of the 2016 presidential campaign through the lens of faith.

According to Shillady, Strong for a Moment Like This provides both insight into Clintons life and hope for the future. Hillary Clinton is a very gracious person, though there is no doubt she was brokenhearted by the election, he said. What has helped is her faith, her family, and the love she feels from those 66 million people who voted for her. And shell continue to advocate for the marginalized.

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New Devotional Highlights Hillary Clinton's Spiritual Side - Publishers Weekly

The national political debate is consumed with allegations of collusion with a foreign government, playing dirty in the election and giving preferential treatment to family and friends.

Familiar charges, no doubt, but there is a twist: In each of these cases, President Trump and his allies are making the accusations, and their target is Hillary Clinton the Democrat vanquished in a presidential contest held nearly nine months ago.

For many Republicans, the 2016 election is still alive and well a go-to counterargument as Trumps agenda bogs down and questions multiply around the Trump campaigns possible improper contacts with Russian officials.

The latest example came Monday night when Trump, in an address to a Boy Scouts Jamboree in West Virginia, chided Clinton for not working hard enough in key Midwestern states that unexpectedly turned red on election night.

Do you remember that incredible night with the maps? Trump asked the Scouts.

(Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Earlier in the day, taking to Twitter, Trump asked why investigators and his beleaguered attorney general, Jeff Sessions, arent looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?

In both public pronouncements and on social media, the president and his allies including the Republican National Committee are arguing, often with scant evidence, that Trumps former rival engaged in similar, if not worse, behavior. The mere mention of Clinton, who remains a reviled figure among Trumps core supporters, also serves as a reminder of how much worse they think things would be if she were in the Oval Office.

[Republicans are in full control of government but losing control of their party]

This certainly seems to be a preoccupation, and as far as I can tell, its unprecedented, said Doug Heye, a Republican consultant and former RNC communications director.

Trump, in many respects, has never stopped reliving last years election. He still makes frequent references to his triumph over Clinton, even in official White House speeches. In an interview last week with New York Times reporters, he quickly mentioned Clintons failure while first lady to help pass a comprehensive health-care bill.

From the podium of the White House briefing room, Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also tried to shift the focus to Clinton.

Look, I think if you want to talk about having relationships with Russia, Id look no further than the Clintons, she said, citing a speech former president Bill Clinton had given to a Russian bank, among other things.

More recently, the RNC has started making a habit of focusing on Clinton in research memos distributed to reporters, White House and Capitol Hill staffers, GOP party leaders and other Washington insiders.

One recent memo highlighted Clintons initial opposition to a set of Russian sanctions while secretary of state. Another detailed internal discussions among Clintons campaign staff brought to light in hacked emails about whether to make an issue during the primaries of fraud allegations related to the wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.).

Yet another highlighted opposition research done last year by a Democratic consultant regarding a leading Trump associate, allegedly with the assistance of the Ukrainian Embassy an exercise that Trump boosters have argued comes closer to collusion with a foreign government than anything proven about the Trump campaign.

Still another memo last week carried the subject header Hillary Clinton but was about another subject entirely: the governors race in Virginia. An RNC aide acknowledged that the use of Clintons name was an attempt to get more attention.

[Trump can usually make it about a third of the way through an interview without mentioning Hillary Clinton]

Republican operatives say Clinton remains fair game, even though she holds no government office and has given no indication that she plans to run for anything again. The Democrats are completely divided and without a leader, said RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens, adding that Clintons plans for a new advocacy group, Onward Together, shows she isnt trying to exit the political arena anytime soon.

Republican hands say some of the focus on Clinton is the result of her being in the headlines recently, including stories last week about an investigation that found the U.S. Postal Service engaged in violations of federal law by pressuring managers to approve letter carriers taking time off to campaign for Clinton last fall.

During the recent Group of 20 summit, Trump also referred to Clintons daughter, Chelsea, in a tweet after he caught flak for briefly turning over his seat to daughter Ivanka during a session with other world leaders. Claiming a double standard, Trump asserted that if the same thing had happened under a Hillary Clinton presidency, the Fake News would have cheered the move.

Undoubtedly, part of the reason that Clinton remains a popular target for Trump and his allies is that she remains a largely unpopular figure.

A Bloomberg News poll this month found 39 percent of Americans rating her favorably and 58percent unfavorably. That hasnt changed much since the election and is about where Trump stands: His favorable rating was 41 percent while his unfavorable rating was 55 percent in the same poll.

Among Republicans, Clinton is even more of an anathema. Only 11percent of Republicans viewed her favorably in a Gallup poll last month.

I dont know if theres some grand scheme here, Barry Bennett, a Republican operative who advised Trump during the general election campaign, said when asked about all the attention Clinton is still receiving. Shes a great motivator for our party. She makes Trump look popular.

[Sean Hannity provides a hospitable TV forum for embattled Donald Trump Jr.]

The focus on Clinton has also reverberated in conservative media, including on Fox News.

Before his recent exclusive interview with Donald Trump Jr. about his meeting with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign, host Sean Hannity spent several minutes outlining unfavorable stories about Clinton and the Democrats, including the Ukrainian reporting. Saying much of the media was obsessed with coverage of the Trump campaigns alleged Russian connections, Hannity said: I pose this question to everybody in the media thats forced to tune in tonight: Which is worse?

More recently, Jesse Watters, another Fox News host, cited reports that the special counsel investigating Russia was expanding his probe into Trumps business dealings before he became president.

The fact that the Trump Organization is now allegedly being investigated and the Clinton Foundation is not really scares me, Watters said, referring to the charity run by the former president, first lady and their daughter.

The latest cover of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid, a publication with friendly ties to Trump, promised a world exclusive on the Russia scandal, alleging that HILLARY FRAMED DONALD TRUMP!

Democratic consultant Mary Anne Marsh said Trumps continued focus on Clinton appears to be part of a broader plan by the White House to play to the presidents base, which also includes plans to travel to Ohio on Tuesday for the latest in a series of campaign rallies in states he won.

Everything theyre doing is about keeping the base in place, because they know its going to get worse from here, Marsh said, referring to the multiple Russia probes. The Trump base loathes Hillary Clinton. Shes a great foil to muddy the waters on all these topics, whether its true or not.

Other presidents have cited their predecessors as a means of contrasting policy choices or pleading patience to turn around what was inherited.

President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies often talked about having to overcome the economic mess left by his predecessor, George W. Bush. And President Ronald Reagan and his team continued to talk about the malaise of Jimmy Carters presidency. But this dynamic is different, analysts say.

What is absolutely unprecedented is the focus on someone who wasnt president, who wasnt the incumbent, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University. Trump knows his base hates Hillary Clinton. He reminds them of why they should hate Hillary Clinton. Its a way of making them feel good about the choice they made in November.

Heye, the Republican operative, said Trump and his team would be better served by talking up his agenda for the country.

Jesse Ferguson, a former Clinton campaign spokesman, said that with few major accomplishments to tout, Trump seems mired in the past.

Hes like the guy at work who cant talk about anything but his high school football glory days because he hasnt done anything with his life since, Ferguson said.

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Trump and the Republicans just can't stop running against Hillary Clinton - Washington Post

For the second day in a row, President Trump slammed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and threw in old foe Hillary Clinton. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) reports. Buzz60

Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions at a presidential campaign rally in 2016 in Madison, Ala.(Photo: John Bazemore, AP)

WASHINGTON If President Trump was listening to the broadcast of Jeff Sessions's contentious Senate confirmation hearing backin January, he would know why his demands this week for his attorney general to investigate Hillary Clintoncrossed a bright ethical line.

This country does not punish its political enemies,'' Sessions told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He went on to acknowledge that his own critical remarks of Clinton during the 2016 presidential election disqualified him from launching such an inquiry.

I believe the proper thing for me to dowould be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve Secretary Clinton,'' Sessions said.

Since Trump first publicly expressed frustration with his attorney generallast week specifically over his March decision to recuse himself from overseeing the widening Russia investigation Sessions has said very little.

Yet the attorney general's own remarksnearly eight months ago underscoretheminefield of potential conflicts of interest inherentin Trump's request to investigate a political opponent and the president's apparent disregard for the traditional independence of the Justice Department.

Trump's continued insistence that Sessions reopen the Clinton inquiry into her use of a private email server,lawmakers and former federal prosecutors said Tuesday, represents atroubling and undisguised attempt to manipulate the criminal justice system.

"Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,'' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.''

Others, however, saw even more serious implications in the recent series of Trump's disparaging comments about Sessions, coupled with the calls for a renewed Clinton investigation.

"To make a demand like this in public, while implying that the attorney general's job is in jeopardy, almost feels like an attempt at blackmail,'' said Patrick Cotter, who has prosecutedhigh-profile organized crime figures."It reeks of a crude mob deal that even most mobsters wouldn't stoop to.

"I'm no fan of Attorney General Sessions, but I believe the president is threatening his own attorney general,'' Cotter continued. "He's essentially telling Sessions, 'If you want to keep your job, you better start an investigation of Hillary Clinton.' "

One day after describing his own attorney general as "beleaguered," Trump fired off a series of tweets Tuesday morning criticizing Sessions for taking "a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes." He also publicly questioned why Sessions was not pursuing reportsfrom early this yearthat officials in Ukraine also sought to interfere in the election.

Later that day, at a White House press conference, Trump reassertedhis "disappointment'' with Sessions' recusal from the current Justice Department inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians who sought to influence the election. The decision was "unfair" to the presidency, he said.

Trump refused to answer questions, however, about whether he intended to dismiss the attorney general. "Time will tell,'' Trump said.

Related:

After President Trump's public attacks, can Jeff Sessions survive as attorney general?

President Trump again knocks Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling him 'beleaguered'

After attacking AG Jeff Sessions for failing to investigate Hillary Clinton, Trump won't say if he will fire him

Trump: If I'd known Sessions would recuse himself on Russia I wouldn't have picked him

Yet Trump's renewed focus on prosecuting Clinton after spending a half-year in office is notable also because it represents a departure from his own post-election statements in which he expressed little interest in pursuing further inquiries into his defeated campaign foe.

Less than two weeks after the election, Trump told the New York Times that he did not want to hurt the Clintons. Then-FBI Director James Comey, who wasabruptly dismissed by Trump in May, formally closed the Clinton investigation just days before the November election without recommending criminal charges.

"I really don't,'' Trump said then. "She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.''

What's more, Kellyanne Conway, now a White House adviser, was more definitive when she told MSNBC last year that Trump also hoped that Congress would forego further investigation into the former secretary of State's activities.

"I think when the president-elect, who's also the head of your party, tells youbefore he's even inaugurated that he doesn't wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone and content to members'' of Congress,'' Conway said then.

Now,Trump is sending a very different message by appearing to turnthe case into a make-or-break issue for the continued tenure of his attorney general, analysts said.

William "Bill'' Barr, who served as attorney general in the administration of George H.W. Bush, said there is nothing inherently illegal or unethical for a president to recommend an investigation.

"But in the current context,'' Barr said, "it would be viewed as political.''

During the campaign, Trump and his surrogates used the Clinton case as a rallying cry all along the trail, often leading chants of "Lock her up!"

Now that he's president, however, Trump's continued pursuit of Clinton could easily be viewed not only as an attempt to punish a political rival or exert undue influence on investigators.

Regardless of whether Trumpconvinces the Justice Department to take up an inquiry, Trump's latest push on this front is "unprecedented," said former federal prosecutorScott Fredericksen.

"The suggestion that he wants to prosecute and imprison a political rival crosses a very bold and historical line that establishes the independence of the Justice Department,'' Fredericksen said. "That line is what separates our American democracy from a third-world dictatorship. A very important line may have been crossed here.''

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Analysis: Trump's demand for AG Jeff Sessions to investigate Hillary Clinton is an ethical minefield - USA TODAY

A quote caught my eye (and others' eyes) over the weekend. It was from Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and it was about how Democrats move forward with a new slogan A Better Deal and new policies.

When you lose to somebody who has 40 percent popularity, you dont blame other things Comey, Russia you blame yourself, Schumer (D-N.Y.) told The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe and David Weigel. So what did we do wrong? People didnt know what we stood for, just that we were against Trump. And still believe that.

I certainly read that as a not-so-veiled shot at Hillary Clinton, who has spent plenty of time blaming things not named Hillary Clintonsince November 2016 for her election defeat. Fox News went so far as to say: Schumer tells Clinton 'blame yourself.'"And, notably, it comes from none other than Clinton's former New York colleague in the Senate.

Others disagreed, believing it was a more general statement about the party. Some even pointed to Schumer's use of the we personal pronoun in the second part of the quote suggesting that he was talking about the party as a whole and not Clinton specifically.

Here's what I think we can say for sure: Regardless of whether this quote was aimed at Clinton, she's definitely on the receiving end. It's undeniably a rebuke of her choice of public statements since the 2016 election, and it shows how some Democrats believe Clinton's decision to continue re-litigating things something she apparently plans to do at length in a forthcoming book is going to make it tougher for her party to move forward.

Clinton has offered a number of reasons for her loss, including Russia's hacking, James B. Comey's late disclosure of newly discovered Clinton emails,misogyny and debate questions. Clinton has said she takes absolute personal responsibility for her loss, but her repeated claims that she was the target of unfair and nefarious attacks suggest otherwise.

Anytime you write about Clinton making these excuses, her defenders are quick to pounce. It's possible that Russia did, in fact, tip the scales, they argue! FiveThirtyEight has done an analysis that suggests Comeyprobably did lose the election for her! And you can certainly make a credible case for either; we'll simply never be able to know for sure, because it would require psychoanalyzing millions of people in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin about something that happened months ago.

The point is that it's kind of neither here nor there at this juncture especially when it comes to Democrats' efforts to climb out of their historically deep hole in Congress and in the states. And Schumer's comments show exactly how fruitful an exercise he believes all of that is in the meantime.

Irrespective of whether he was sending a message to Clinton and her defenders, they should consider it a commentary on her and their unwillingness to let go of the 2016 election and the many ways in which they feelthey were wronged. Regardless of those feelings, Schumer seems to be arguing that the fact the Democrats were even in a position to lose to the most unpopular president-elect in modern history is an indictment of them. He doesn't want the party to continue trying to rely on how unpopular Trump is moving forward, and looking backward makes it more difficult to dothat.

That's a message that can't help but be about his former colleaguefrom New York.

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Chuck Schumer's shot at Hillary Clinton? - Washington Post