President of the United States Donald Trump immediately after assuming office instructed his staff to develop proposals for improving bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington. First of all, it was a question of unilateral lifting of economic sanctions against Russia. According to YahooNews referring to the State Department veteran Dan Fried, who coordinated the US sanctions policy until the end of February 2017, the intentions of the new administration of the White House against Russia were actually blocked by the outgoing team of Barack Obama.
Improving relations with Russia was considered by the administration of Donald Trump as a necessary step for closer cooperation with Moscow in the fight against the "Islamic State" (IG - banned in Russia) in Syria. In addition to the abolition of economic sanctions, it was planned to take steps to return Russian diplomatic ownership - the country residences of the Russian Embassy in New York and Maryland, access to which was blocked on December 29, 2016. After the introduction of sanctions by Obama for hacker attacks on the US infrastructure.
It is likely that the antipersonnel initiatives of the Trump team were discussed by the president's son-in-law and his senior adviser Jared Kushner, ex-US national security adviser Michael Flynn with the Russian ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak. Earlier it was reported that to implement these initiatives, the creation of a secret communication channel between Moscow and Washington.
According to Fried, government officials who received the relevant instructions from the Trump team, terrified him and asked: "How can I stop it?". In turn, Dan Fried asked congressmen, including Democrat Ben Cardin, to familiarize themselves with the proposal to legislatively limit the possibility of lifting sanctions, obliging the new US president to coordinate this issue with the Congress. To campaign in Congress also joined the former assistant secretary of state for democracy, US President Baraka Obamy administration Tom Malinowski, who is also alarmed about the preparation of a personal meeting with Trump Russian President Vladimir Putin.
YahooNews notes that the activity undertaken by outgoing officials in the Congress has lost its relevance immediately after the resignation of US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who allegedly hid his working contacts with the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak.
As for the current prospect of lifting sanctions, the initial fuse of the administration of Donald Trump may well dry up, the portal notes.. One of the high-ranking officials of the White House stressed that the new team of the White House had expectations that the Russians would seize the opportunity and activate peacekeeping efforts in Ukraine. But the idea did not work with an advance,.