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Trump Blames Congress for Deteriorating Relationship with Russia | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin shake hands during the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany in this still image taken from video, July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Steffen Kugler/Courtesy of Bundesregierung/Handout via REUTERS


Washington- US President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at Congress for the country’s deteriorating relationship with Russia, which he characterized in a tweet as “at an all-time and very dangerous low.”

He added, “you can thank Congress, the same people that can’t even give us HCare!” referencing the failure of the Senate to pass legislation overhauling the Affordable Care Act.

Senator John MacCain replied at the president’s tweet in a post “Our relationship with Russia is at dangerous low. You can thank Putin for attacking our democracy, invading neighbors & threatening our allies.”

The president’s assessment came a day after he begrudgingly signed legislation, passed by overwhelming majorities in the House and the Senate, that imposes new sanctions on Russia.

In a statement Wednesday, Trump criticized the bill he signed as “seriously flawed,” arguing that it encroaches on his powers as president. He also said that he had “built a great company worth many billions of dollars” and asserted that he “can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress.”

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has decried what he described as the Trump administration’s “total weakness” and saying that the package “ends hopes for improving our relations with the new administration.”

Russia reacted by announcing that it would order the US Embassy there to reduce its staff to 455 people by the beginning of September. “De facto, this changes nothing,” said the Kremlin while the Russian foreign ministry saw that these sanctions have put the global stability at risk and described them as dangerous and short-sighted.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that he will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov end of this week, but he warned that Russian-US ties might deteriorate.