At the White House Press Briefing yesterday, President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, said very categorically that the sanctions against Russia for the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula will remain in place until Russia leaves the disputed area. However, Mr. Spicer gave an opening for negotiation on the additional sanctions that were leveled against Russia for the support of the uprising in East Ukraine. Once again, it seems there is a deal in the works behind the scenes. Here is an excerpt of the press briefing regarding the issue taken from the White House website.
MR. SPICER: “Well, there’s two sets of sanctions, Tamara, that we got to deal with, right? One is the ones with respect to Crimea. And I think that Ambassador Haley has addressed that very forcefully at the U.N., that until Russia leaves Crimea, that those sanctions are a non-starter. With respect to the other ones, I don’t want to get ahead of the legislation, if that’s what that specifically is dealing with. But again, we’re not going to get into pending legislation.
“With respect to the sanctions that specifically deal with Ukraine and Crimea, I think that Ambassador Haley has spoken very, very clearly about that.”
