Trump’s open admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and promises to rebuild frayed USA ties with Moscow have raised questions, in Washington and among US allies, over his commitment to maintaining sanctions against Russia for its involvement in fighting in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
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President Trump’s national security advisor talked about sanctions against Russian Federation with the country’s ambassador in December, The Washington Post reports.
The details of President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone call on January 28 regarding the two parties’ nuclear arms reduction treaty was revealed by Reuters Thursday.
If New START is not mutually extended, neither America nor Russian Federation would be limited in their nuclear production, which could trigger a nuclear arms race. It could be that Trump is eyeing more significant nuclear concessions by Moscow as the price of ending sanctions; if so, he’ll obviously need more from them than what New START now provides.
Kimball adds that the opposition to the treaty when it was signed in 2010 seemed to revolve around the perception that the deal allowed Russian Federation to deploy nuclear weapons at a greater rate than the United States and wouldn’t allow the United States to modernize its nuclear arsenal. US intelligence agencies were wrapping up their investigation into Russia’s influence into the 2016 election, which ended with the Obama administration imposing sanctions on Moscow.
I take it as a good sign that he’s pushing back against Putin in negotiations, whatever the subject.
Last fall Rubio was one of the first and most ardent Republicans to disavow any damaging information being leaked about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton because Rubio was convinced by intelligence reports that the information came from Putin.
Cardin has also called for an independent commission to investigate the USA intelligence community’s assessment that Russian Federation sought to sway the US election in Trump’s favor through the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff.
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White House spokesman Sean Spicer has refused to comment on the nature of the conversation, calling it private. During the conversation with Trump, Putin spoke about a possibility to prolong the agreement.
