Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes President-elect Trump will lift the sanctions just imposed by outgoing President Obama in response to cyberattacks targeting the Democratic National Committee and other campaigns.
“Considering the current transition period in Washington, we still expect that we’ll be able to get rid of such clumsy actions,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, per RT, a Kremlin-funded media outlet.
Peskov suggested that Putin might delay Russian payback over the sanctions until after Trump takes office, saying “there’s no need to rush” the retaliation. “As it said before, we consider this decision and these sanctions unjustified and illegal under international law,” Peskov said.
Obama’s team seemed to account for the fact that Trump, who has stated his disbelief that Russia was behind the hacks and the leaks of Democratic documents, will soon be taking office when they crafted the sanctions.
“I don’t think it’d make much sense to invite back in Russian intelligence agents,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Thursday afternoon. “The officials who were sanctioned were participating in malicious cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure and interfering [with] our democratic process so, again: Hypothetically, [Trump] could reverse those sanctions, but I don’t think it’d make a lot of sense.”
Senate Republicans want Trump “to impose stronger sanctions on Russia,” saying Obama hadn’t done enough.
“The retaliatory measures announced by the Obama Administration today are long overdue,” Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday. “But ultimately, they are a small price for Russia to pay for its brazen attack on American democracy. We intend to lead the effort in the new Congress to impose stronger sanctions on Russia.”
