Russia and Putin · 2016 campaign · № 13
Asked whether he would recognize Crimea as Russian and lift sanctions, said 'We'll be looking at that'
“We'll be looking at that. Yeah, we'll be looking.”
- Said
- , News conference at Trump National Doral, Miami
- Subject
- Crimea recognition
- Type
- Sanctions and pressure
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
A reporter asked whether, as president, he would recognize Crimea as Russian territory and whether the United States would lift sanctions. Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014; the United States and the European Union refused to recognize the annexation or the referendum used to justify it and imposed sanctions on Russian state banks and corporations. At the same news conference Trump said: 'I said that Putin has much better leadership qualities than Obama, but who doesn't know that?' Four days later, on ABC's This Week, he said of Crimea, 'I'm going to take a look at it. But, you know, the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.' As president he signed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act on August 2, 2017, which enacted new sanctions on Russia.