The United States do not intend to mitigate Sanctions Against Russia, they may even intensify it, US President Donald Trump's adviser on Friday said, which is different from Washington's point of view from the day before.
"We do not intend to decrease sanctions against Russia, but we will probably be more rigorous towards Russia," Trump's economist Gary Cohn said at the margins of the G7 Summit in Taormina. The day before, Cohn said Trump considered the sanction question to Russia and added, "We do not currently have a position."
The US and EU imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014, following the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
This has caused Russian counter-insurrection to the West and a series of crises in relations between the East and the West. European Council President Donald Tusk on Friday urged G7 leaders to strictly adhere to decisions on sanctions against Russia, responding to Cohnano's statement that Washington has no stand on that issue.
Putin's reaction
"Russia's relationship with the NATO Alliance is at the lowest point of the cold war", the Russian Foreign Ministry assessed on a day after the Western Union Military Association held its summit in Brussels. The summit was also attended by the US President Donald Trump.
The ever stronger presence of NATO forces at the borders with Russia is contradicted by the guidelines of the 1997 bilateral agreement, says the statement, adding that NATO has overburdened the possible threat that Russia could represent.
Following the break-up of the Soviet Union since 1994, military cooperation has been intensified with a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1997, an agreement on mutual relations, cooperation and security was signed with Russia. On this Saturday it is the marking of the 20th anniversary of the NATO-Russia agreement.
East European members are feeling vulnerable
"Growing negative tendencies are not a choice of Russia, they are the result of many years of destructive standpoints aimed at ruthlessly achieving military and political domination in European and global affairs," the statement says.
East European members of NATO are feeling more threatened by Russia since it has annexed the Ukrainian Crimea three years ago.
In recent years, NATO has deployed thousands of soldiers in Poland and the Baltic States. Trump announced at the summit on Thursday that the US intends to increase NATO funding, which has raised the concerns of the Russian ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko.
