WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump grudgingly accepted new congressional
sanctions on Russia, the top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday, remarks in
contrast
with those of Vice President Mike Pence, who said the bill showed Trump and
Congress speaking "with a unified voice."
The U.S.
Congress voted last week by overwhelming margins for sanctions to punish the
Russian government over interference in the 2016 presidential election,
annexation of Crimea and other perceived violations of international norms.
U.S.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that he and Trump did not
believe the new sanctions would "be helpful to our efforts" on
diplomacy with Russia.
Trump has
been clear that he wants to improve relations with Russia, a desire that has
been hamstrung by findings of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered
to help the Republican against Democrat Hillary Clinton. U.S. congressional
panels and a special counsel are investigating. Moscow denies any meddling and
Trump denies any collusion by his campaign.
Tillerson,
who did business in Russia when he was chief executive of Exxon Mobil, has said
repeatedly that the world's two major nuclear powers cannot have such a bad
relationship.
"The
action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place and the way they did,
neither the President nor I were very happy about that," Tillerson said.
"We were clear that we didn't think it was going to be helpful to our
efforts, but that's the decision they made, they made it in a very overwhelming
way. I think the president accepts that."
Tillerson
stopped short of saying definitively that Trump would sign the sanctions,
saying only that "all indications are he will sign that bill."
Vice
President Mike Pence, at a press conference in Georgia with Prime Minister
Giorgi Kvirikashvili, said unequivocally that "President Trump will sign
the Russia sanctions bill soon."
Pence
acknowledged that the administration objected to earlier versions of the
sanctions bill because it did not grant enough flexibility to the
administration, but said it "improved significantly" in later
versions.
"And
let me say that in signing the sanction, our President and our Congress are
speaking with a unified voice," Pence said.
White House
spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday the sanctions bill was under review
and would be signed.
"There's
nothing holding him back," Sanders said at a news briefing. Trump has
until Aug. 9 to sign the bill, or veto it, or it will automatically become law.
In
retaliation for the sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday
that the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia must reduce its staff by 755 people.
Russia is also seizing two properties near Moscow used by American diplomats.
Tillerson
said Putin probably believes his response was a symmetrical action to
Washington seizing two Russian properties in the United States and expelling 35
diplomats last December.
"Of
course it makes our lives more difficult," he said.
Tillerson
said he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would meet in Manila on the
margins of next weekend's meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations.
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