Russia and Putin · 2016 campaign · № 5
Told a Russian questioner at FreedomFest 'I don't think you'd need the sanctions' if he were president
“I believe I would get along very nicely with Putin, OK? And I mean, where we have the strength. I don't think you'd need the sanctions. I think we would get along very, very well.”
- Said
- , Question-and-answer session at FreedomFest, Las Vegas
- Subject
- Sanctions on Russia
- Type
- Sanctions and pressure
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
The question came from Maria Butina, a Russian gun-rights activist who said she was 'visiting from Russia' and asked whether he would 'continue the politics of sanctions' as president. The sanctions had been imposed in 2014 over Russia's annexation of Crimea. According to the Senate Intelligence Committee's 2020 report, Butina called Russian official Alexander Torshin from the restroom afterward, calling it 'my best report', and posted that evening that 'Trump is saying about mitigation of sanctions'. In December 2018 Butina pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to conspiring against the United States under the direction of a Russian official. Trump had said on NBC's Today on March 14, 2014 that 'We should definitely do sanctions'. As president he signed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act on August 2, 2017, which enacted new sanctions on Russia, while calling the bill 'seriously flawed'.
Sources
- Trump Spoke to a Russian Activist About Ending Sanctions—Just Weeks After Launching His Campaign
- Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities
- Maria Butina Pleads Guilty as Another Russian Domino Falls
- Before presidential run, Trump called Russia the 'biggest problem' and geopolitical foe of U.S.
- Statement on Signing the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act