Reports: Trump Adviser Discussed Sanctions With Russian Envoy Before Trump Took Office
U.S. media reports say White House national security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Moscow's ambassador to the United States during the month before President Donald Trump took office.
The reports on February 9 in The Washington Post and The New York Times cite unnamed current and former U.S. officials.
The Washington Post said some senior U.S. officials interpreted the contacts as a "potentially illegal" signal to Russia that it could expect a reprieve from sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in December.
Trump advisers have said that Flynn spoke to Sergei Kislyak a few days after Christmas merely to arrange a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin after the inauguration.
But The New York Times cites current and former American officials as saying that the conversation -- which took place the day before the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia over accusations that it used cyberattacks to help sway the election in Trump’s favor -- ranged far beyond the logistics of a postinauguration phone call.
The officials said that Flynn had never made explicit promises of sanctions relief but that he had appeared to leave the impression it would be possible.
The New York Times says the accounts of the conversations raise the prospect that Flynn violated a law against private citizens engaging in diplomacy, and directly contradict statements made by Trump advisers.
There was no immediate reaction to the reports from the Trump administration.
Based on reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times
In First Meeting, Top EU, U.S. Diplomats Discuss Russia, Iran, Ukraine
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke "at length" about terrorism, Russia, the Iran nuclear deal, and Ukraine in their first meeting, the EU said.
Mogherini visited Washington on February 9-10 for the first time since Donald Trump became president, meeting both with Tillerson and Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser.
Mogherini said she and Tillerson had an "open exchange on many dossiers," including "transatlantic relations, the common challenge of countering terrorism, the ongoing work to strengthen European defense, relations with Russia, the Iran nuclear deal, and the main crises, from Ukraine to Syria," she said.
No details of the discussions were available.
Mogherini helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump has described as "terrible."
Moreover, U.S.-Iran tensions have flared this month as Flynn put Iran "on notice" for test-firing a ballistic missile.
Trump has expressed openness to working more closely with Russia, a stance that has rattled European allies, while Tillerson had significant business ties with Russia when he was chief executive of ExxonMobil. But during his confirmation hearings, Tillerson called Russia a "bad actor."
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Thursday, February 9, 2017. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
From the deputy secretary-general of NATO:
Kremlin Criticizes Sanctions After U.S. Senators Submit Legislation
Russia has reiterated its opposition to the use of sanctions in international affairs, saying they are "rather destructive and harmful to both sides."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comment on February 9, after a group of U.S. senators introduced legislation that would make it harder for President Donald Trump to lift sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine if he seeks to do so.
The bipartisan bill was introduced on February 8 amid mounting concerns in Congress about the Trump administration's policy intentions toward Russia.
U.S.-Russia ties have sunk to lows unseen since the Cold War amid rancor over Moscow's seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, its backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine, its involvement in the Syrian conflict, and other issues.
Trump has repeatedly signaled he wants better ties with Russia and closer cooperation in combating terrorism.
Peskov also rejected suggestions that the Kremlin and the U.S. administration may try to negotiate a deal over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, saying it "can hardly be a subject for some kind of deal."
He said Russia wants the United States to pressure Ukraine to fulfill the terms of a 2015 deal aimed at ending the fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists, which has killed more than 9,750 people since April 2014.
Ukraine says Russia is not fulfilling its obligations under the agreement.