A top White House official suggested withdrawing U.S. troops from Eastern Europe in a gesture to Russian leader Vladimir Putin shortly after Trump took office, according to a report Tuesday.
The proposal was never enacted, but it is the first known instance of senior White House aides angling to relocate U.S. military forces in a move to satisfy Putin, the Daily Beast reported.
Kevin Harrington, the National Security Council’s senior official for strategic planning, suggested in February 2017 that U.S. troops be removed from areas near Russian borders in order to “refram[e] our interests within the context of a new relationship with Russia,” a former official, who was present when Harrington suggested the idea, told the Daily Beast.
Harrington, who saw economic sanctions on Russia as being detrimental to the U.S., pondered relocating or withdrawing U.S. forces in the Baltics in a move to appease the Kremlin and allow the Trump administration to determine if Russia would act in kind in an attempt to establish an amicable relationship.
The former official said he believed the idea was ill-advised and that the Kremlin would perceive the move as a go-ahead from the U.S. for additional provocations in areas such as Ukraine and Syria.
“I sensed we were giving something and it wasn’t clear what we were gaining in return,” the former official said.
The former official indicated that Harrington may not have further pressed the proposal because of the likelihood that H.R. McMaster, now national security adviser, would oppose it.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, along with several other congressional committees, are investigating the role Russia played in the 2016 election.
