While Trump has been busy attacking and offending Mexico and Australia and Germany and Britain and most of the U.S., he still found time to give a little gift to Russia.
On Thursday, the Treasury Department announced that it is removing some of the sanctions Obama placed on Russia. Obama placed the sanctions because of Russia’s interference in our election. Treasury said that they will now allow some companies to do business with Russia’s FSB, formerly known as the KGB.
The financial sanctions against the FSB were put in place because U.S. Intelligence believes that they were involved in the Russian hacking.
So far Trump’s action is minor, but it’s very significant. It sends the signal to Putin and the rest of the world that we are assisting Russia. And it sends a clear message that Trump has no intention of holding them accountable for attacking our democracy…or anything else for that matter.
“The move is a minor easing of a sanction put in place at the end of the Obama administration that limits business to $5,000 for any calendar year.A top State Department official said the move was made as a technical fix to the sanctions that were put in place to avoid “unintended consequences” of US government business with Russia.”
Knowing that this gesture will likely not go over well in this country, Trump is denying that he’s easing sanctions.
Sean Spicer defended this move saying it was not “a change in policy.” He explained,
“From what I understand it’s a fairly common practice for the Treasury Department, after sanctions are in place, to go back and look at whether or not there needs to be specific carve-outs for different industries or products or services.”
While Trump has been busy attacking and offending many of our closest allies, along with most of the U.S., he still found time to give a little gift to Russia.
