Washington won’t ease sanctions the U. S. slapped on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine – and is even contemplating getting ‘tougher’ on Moscow, a top Trump administration official said Friday.
Gary Cohn, head of the White House National Economic Council, revealed the posture to reporters after causing some confusion with his remarks on the same subject Thursday.
‘Let me stop with right and left and let me just be much more blunt and clear. We’re not lowering our sanctions on Russia. If anything we would probably look to get tougher on Russia,’ Cohn told reporters traveling with President Trump, who is attending a G7 summit in Sicily.
‘Let me be more succinct on what right and left mean when we’re talking about sanctions and Russia,’ he explained.
‘What I was trying – someone asked me if that means we’re going to lower our sanctions on Russia, and I said, “You’re only looking one direction, I’m looking both directions, right and left.”
The former Goldman Sachs exec also spoke specifically about President Trump’s view.
‘So the president wants to continue to keep the sanctions in place, and I think the president’s made it clear how the Russians could have the sanctions lifted and how he could have the sanctions taken away,’ he said.
He made his comments to reporters at the G7 summit of leading industrialised nations in Sicily.
The European Union and United States under then president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia rebels.
But it has been unclear whether Obama’s successor Donald Trump, who is under fire domestically over allegations that Russia meddled to aid his election campaign last year, would maintain these sanctions.
Just Thursday evening, Cohn had said the United States did not yet “have a position” on the issue.
“I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we don’t have a position” he told reporters traveling with the president.
That remark drew some confusion, and prompted Cohn to clear up his remarks.
The affirmation of the US stance came as US media reported that the FBI was looking into the activities of Trump’s son-in-law and top aide, Jared Kushner, as part of the probe into possible Russian interference — drawing his family into the crisis.
European Union president Donald Tusk had earlier called on G7 leaders to maintain Russia sanctions.
“Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven’t seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia,” Tusk, who coordinates policy for the EU’s 28 leaders, told reporters.
“I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy,” he added before the latest summit of seven leading industrialized nations kicked off in the town of Taormina, with Trump one of four leaders new to the G7 party.
Cohn’s statement came as Moscow says relations with the West are hitting a new low.
‘At present, NATO-Russian relations are at their worst since the end of the Cold War,’ the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a statement.
The early days of Trump’s administration have been dominated by press reports of Russian interference in the presidential elections and revelations of ties between Trump’s team and Russian officials.
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner had come under the focus of federal investigators for December meetings he had with Russia’s ambassador to the U. S. and with the head of a Russian bank.
Despite Trump’s early expressions of hope for improved relations, there have been some strains. Trump launched cruise missiles at Syria after a chemical weapons attack, striking forces loyal to the government of Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Moscow.
Trump defied critics by meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov – but then got burned when Moscow released chummy-looking photos of the meeting.
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