U.S.-Russia relations haven’t changed, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday, and Russia’s behavior needs to change before their dynamic can improve.
Asked about relations between the countries on “Fox News Sunday,” McMaster responded that “I don’t think they’ve gotten really either better or worse.”
Russia’s problem is that it is acting against its own interests in Syria and Ukraine, said McMaster, one of the top national security aides to President Trump. Trump said repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would seek a better relationship with Russia.
“Here you have a Russian president acting against the Russian people’s interest and doing it, I think, just kind of reflexively,” he said.
While the administration wants to work with Russia on shared interests, McMaster said, there needs to be a shift in rhetoric but also a change in Russia’s actions that have provoked the U.S. “What we really need to see is change in behavior,” he said.
