Trump is going to lift sanctions against Russia, - source close to US president
Trump administration is preparing an executive order to roll back sanctions against Russia.
"DC sources say that Trump admin has an executive order ready to lift Russia sanctions. @POTUS [President of the United States] to talk to Merkel and then Putin on Saturday," senior research fellow at the Atlantic Council Fabrice Pothier tweeted late on Thursday, January 26.
"If confirmed, [it] would be biggest upset for years of patient Western efforts to stop revanchist Russia. Important Congress and Europe to react," he wrote. Editor of U.S.-based Susan Glasser also mentioned that the executive order was said to be ready.
"Hearing Trump world has text of order floating around to ease Russia sanctions," she tweeted on the same day. The sources did not elaborate on the type of the anti-Russian sanctions. Reuters reported on Friday, quoting the Kremlin, that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to talk by telephone this Saturday.
This will be their first conversation since Trump took office, it said. The phone call will be a crucial first step towards what the Kremlin and the White House hope will be a thaw in relations that were fraught under the previous U.S. administration, Reuters wrote.
Their conversation will also be subject to close scrutiny from Trump's critics after U.S. intelligence agencies alleged that Russian security services tried to influence the U.S. presidential election in Trump's favor. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked by Russian news agencies if the phone call could take place on Saturday, replied: "Yes," but gave no further details.
Source: UNIAN