In the early days of Trump's presidency, the new administration intended to lift sanctions on Russia, but the members of the old administration and State Department officials prevented it. This was reported by Yahoo News, referring to informed sources.
According to the portal, immediately after joining the White House, the new administration instructed the State Department to work out the proposals for the lifting of economic sanctions on Russia and the return of diplomatic property. However, some of the State Department officials who did not support such a decision appealed to Congress with a request to pass a law that would block the possible lifting of sanctions.
Diplomat Daniel Fried's statement
Daniel Fried, a former foreign policy official who dealt with sanctions, said that at that time he received many calls to prevent the new administration from acting. After that, he asked Congress to develop and adopt a bill against the lifting of sanctions. On February 7, Senators Ben Cardin and Lindsey Graham reportedly submitted the necessary document.
According to two former officials, the U.S. wanted to improve relations with Russia in order to gain an ally in the fight against terrorists in Syria.
Glimpse from the past weeks
A week ago, on May 24, it was known that Trump hired attorney Marc Kasowitz, who will defend him during an investigation into the links between Trump's entourage and Russia in the 2016 election campaign.
On May 18 the US Department of Justice appointed ex-FBI director Robert Mueller as the special adviser to investigate possible Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election.
On June 1, it was found out that the President's administration would no longer answer media questions to investigate possible ties between Donald Trump's election headquarters and Russia.
The media wrote that in March Trump asked two senior intelligence officials to publicly refute the communication about his dealings with Russia.
The assistant of ex-president Barack Obama, Tom Malinowski, also confirmed the similar intentions of the Trump administration. In addition, he said that the White House planned a possible meeting of the President with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The current anonymous White House official confirmed that the administration was really engaged in reviewing the imposed sanctions, and it concerned not only Russia but also other countries.
Earlier it had been reported that the US senators had prepared a plan to tighten sanctions against Russia.
