A bipartisan group of senators on the Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter to President Trump on Thursday urging him not to return to Russian President Vladimir Putin the diplomatic compounds that the U.S. seized late last year in response to the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election.
The letter comes just before Trump’s meeting with Putin on Friday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. It is signed by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.
“The return of these two facilities to Russia while the Kremlin refuses to address its influence campaign against the United States would embolden President Vladimir Putin and invite a dangerous escalation in the Kremlin’s destabilizing actions against democracies worldwide,” the senators wrote.
During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on June 13, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson indicated the return of the compounds to Russia is subject to ongoing negotiations with the Kremlin.
Former President Barack Obama ejected Russian officials from the two compounds, located near New York City and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, just before leaving office.
Obama said on Dec. 29 that the compounds were being “used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes.”
The inclusion of Rubio to the letter concerning the seized compounds is notable because he is a Russia hawk who has allied with Trump on other issues, including the president’s decision to rein in Obama’s Cuba policy.
Rubio has previously called on Trump to sign legislation passed by the Senate, and expected to be voted on soon in the House, that would add new sanctions against Russia while including language that would stop the president from being able to lift the sanctions without approval from Congress.
Democrats in Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, have released statements in the run-up to Trump’s meeting with Putin pushing the U.S. president to confront the Russian leader over the Kremlin’s election interference.
The president is not expected to discuss with Putin Russia’s interference in the election, and national security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters last week there was no agenda for the meeting.
