Indeed, some of the toughest sanctions in years have fallen on Russia’s elite under the Trump administration.
- Sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 have not been lifted, Trump approved the sale of lethal weapons to Ukraine — something Barack Obama did not do — and he has ordered missiles fired at Syrian military sites, openly targeting strategic operations and allies of Russia.
-In August 2017, Trump signed into law the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, despite calling it “seriously flawed.†He then bypassed a congressionally mandated deadline in January to act on the bill and impose new sanctions on Russia.
-Sanctions were finally imposed on members of Russia’s elite and their business entities in April, after 13 Russians were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for “malicious cyber-enabled activities†in March.
-Also in March, following the poisoning of former KGB agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the U.K., the Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats from the U.S., although reports indicated he was not happy with the move.
-In the wake of another chemical attack by the Assad regime on Syrian civilians, an enraged Trump took to Twitter to threaten the dictator — and his sponsor state, Russia. “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’†he wrote on Twitter in April, lambasting the country for supporting Assad, whom he called a “gas killing animal.â€
-Trump had fired 59 tomahawk missiles at Syrian airbases one year prior in response to a similar attack, attracting Russian condemnation.
- Over two hundred Russian mercenaries were killed by Trump attacks on Syria
Please read the above mentioned, this is not signs of weakness but strength. Trump also set the stage at the NATO meeting held prior to the summit that America will be competing on selling gas to Europe. The gas pipeline is what Russia depends on without it their economy would collapse. To hold Trump accountable for a misspoken word is ludicrous but who cares at this point. Trump will brush it off and continue to Make America Great Again.
