McCain warns Trump not to become too friendly with Russia
The republican senator John McCain warned US president-elect Donald Trump against softening relations with Russia. McCain stated that any “reset” of these relations will be a dangerous step.
The remarks of John McCain, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and an avid critic of Russia, showed rising tensions between Trump and the republicans in the senate with regard to Russia. McCain referred to a recent phone conversation between Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin during which the latter called for mending ties between the countries.
In his statement McCain wrote that, “we should place as much faith in such statements as any other made by a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened America’s allies, and attempted to undermine America’s elections.”
McCain also mentioned an attempt of outgoing president Barack Obama to restore ties with Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Georgia in 2008. This “attempt at resetting relations with Russia culminated in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and military intervention in the Middle East”, the senator stated.
According to McCain, the next such “reset would be complicity in Putin and Assad’s butchery of the Syrian people”.