Russian President Vladimir Putin's demands of the Trump administration to return two compounds used by the Russians in Maryland and New York State -- as they were shut down under sanctions last December -- was supposed to be a central issue for their meeting on Friday, ABC News reported. According to VOA News Trump and Putin spent two hours discussing a variety of issues and a Russian official said that the subject of returning the compounds was brought up but no deal was reached. A day prior to their meeting, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (R-NH) sent a letter along with other Senators warning President Trump not to return those compounds to the Russians saying that they had not paid the price for meddling in the 2016 Presidential Election.

U.S. officials did not say if the issue over the compounds had been brought up.

Trump under pressure from Russia and special prosecutor

According to President Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, he said that the Kremlin showed unusual flexibility in December by not retaliating against those sanctions. The sanctions were imposed by President Obama for Russia's interference in the 2016 Presidential Election. It was later learned that Putin ordered the sabotage of the Clinton campaign in favor of electing President Trump. For this reason, a criminal investigation has been launched against members of the Trump campaign and President Trump himself to see the extent of their collusion with Russian officials and evidence of the President's attempts to obstruct justice.

Establishing sanctions in December

Back in December 2016, the Independent reported that after former President Obama put more sanctions on Russia, the Kremlin threatened to retaliate. It was later learned that then President-elect Trump's aide and pick for national security advisor, Michael Flynn, had made calls to Russian officials where he told them to wait until after Donald Trump's inauguration before they tried to lift sanctions.

It was after this that Vladimir Putin publicly invited American lawmakers to the Kremlin for a New Years celebration as a gesture of peace. Michael Flynn would later be forced to resign after he had apparently not told Vice-president Mike Pence about the calls.

Continuing sanctions under Trump

According to the Associated Press, Ushakov said through reporters that the administration should return those compounds or the Kremlin would retaliate.

Currently, Congress is making an effort through the Senate to put more sanctions on Russia, enforce the same sanctions that were put in by the Obama administration and prevent Trump from having the power to lift them. However, the bill is currently stalled in the House with Republicans saying that there was a technicality on the passage of the bill. Democrats said that Republicans are stalling under pressure from the Trump administration to not enforce more sanctions.

Also according to the intelligence community, AP reported that the two Russian compounds confiscated by the U.S. were said to be bases used for espionage. It was reported that last year President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner allegedly wanted to set up a secret back-channel between the White House and the Kremlin and made this request to a Russian official.

The back channel could have been an attempt to prevent monitoring by U.S. intelligence and it's likely that this back-channel would have been established at one of these compounds. Yuri Ushakov said that they already have plans for retaliation drawn up.
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