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WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (PRIME) -- The U.S. may lift the sanctions against Russia imposed for its actions in the Crimea and Ukraine in exchange for a bilateral agreement on nuclear arms reduction, President-elect Donald Trump promised on Monday, media reported. “For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it. But Russia’s hurting very badly right now because of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit,” Trump said as cited by the Times newspaper. The approach would result in “de-escalating international tensions,” he said. Late on January 14, President Barack Obama said in a statement that he extended the sanctions imposed in March 2014 for a year.
“(The) actions and policies of the government of the Russian Federation, including its purported annexation of Crimea and its use of force in Ukraine, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States…Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13660 with respect to Ukraine,” he said.
In 2014, relations between Russia and the West deteriorated to their worse since the Cold War due to a military conflict in Ukraine. The West introduced sanctions against some Russian individuals and firms and further against the energy and banking sectors. In response, Russia limited food imports from some countries, including the U.S., the E.U., Canada, Australia, and Norway.
Oleg Morozov, member of Russian parliament’s upper house Federation Council, told PRIME that Russia is ready to discuss nuclear weapons reduction with the U.S. together with the lifting of sanctions as Moscow has never liked the nuclear arms race.
“This (slash of nuclear weapons) is not a condition to lift the sanctions, these two topics are different, but we can discuss them together if the U.S. side suggests…We were never full supporters of the arms race, we are interested in the reduction of them,” he said.
But Russia will never concede on principal directions. “Everyone has long understood that sanctions cannot make Russia bow to any conditions,” he said.
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