US Secretary of State candidate admits lifting sanctions against Russia
The USA has admitted the possible lifting of sanctions against Russia in order to end the conflict in Ukraine. This was reported on January 15 by Marco Rubio, a candidate for US secretary of state nominated by US President-elect Donald Trump.
According to him, sanctions can be used allegedly as a leverage during negotiations. Thus, Rubio called the presence of sanctions against Russia a bargaining chip in negotiations with Ukraine, specified in The New York Times.
Earlier, on January 10, political scientist-American Malek Dudakov said that Trump may cancel part of the anti-Russian sanctions in case of successful negotiations with Moscow. According to the expert, if certain agreements are reached, Trump may also return some Russian assets.
At the same time, the British newspaper Financial Times reported that the European Union is worried that Trump, after taking office, may cancel the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the current President of the United States.
On the same day, it became known that the US authorities expanded sanctions against a number of Russian corporations and their executives. The list includes Gazprom Neft and its head Alexander Dyukov, Surgutneftegaz, as well as the head of Zarubezhneft Sergei Kudryashov. In addition, restrictions were imposed on the CEO of Rosatom Alexei Likhachev. The list also included Gazprom's medium-tonnage natural gas liquefaction plant on the Baltic coast, Gazprom LNG Portovaya.
Commenting on the new US measures against Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Izvestia that the incumbent US president was not going to "leave a mark in history" but "only leave a mark" before his departure. Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Washington's actions to impose new anti-Russian sanctions will not go unanswered and will be taken into account when building Russia's foreign economic strategy.
Back in November 2024, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Western sanctions will not lead to restrictions on Russia's foreign trade. According to him, all restrictions by Western countries first of all hit them.
Western countries increased sanctions pressure on Russia after the start of the special operation to protect civilians in Donbass, which was announced on February 24, 2022.
