Daniel Fried: Trump as soon as he took office, tried to lift sanctions against Russia

Baku. 2 June. REPORT.AZ/ Unknown to the public at the time, top Trump administration officials, almost as soon as they took office, tasked State Department staffers with developing proposals for the lifting of economic sanctions, the return of diplomatic compounds and other steps to relieve tensions with Moscow. Report informs referring to Yahoo News, said Dan Fried, a veteran State Department official who served as chief U.S. coordinator for sanctions policy until he retired in late February.

According to him, the State Department officials under the Obama administration, who at that time were still working there, tried to prevent these actions of Trump.

“There was serious consideration by the White House to unilaterally rescind the sanctions,” Fried said.

He said in the first few weeks of the administration, he received several “panicky” calls from US 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?”