Report: White House Officials Worked to Ease Russia Sanctions

The incoming Trump administration immediately sought to normalize relations with Russia and ease sanctions imposed by President Obama in response to the Kremlin’s intervention in Ukraine, Yahoo News reported late Thursday. The efforts were thwarted by Obama holdover administration officials and concerned State Department staffers who lobbied congressional leaders to produce legislation blocking any such move. “There was serious consideration by the White House to unilaterally rescind the sanctions,” Dan Fried, the former chief U.S. coordinator for sanctions policy until his retirement in February, told Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff, who additionally reported: “[Fried] said in the first few weeks of the administration, he received several ‘panicky’ calls from U.S. government officials who told him they had been directed to develop a sanctions-lifting package and imploring him, ‘Please, my God, can’t you stop this?’”