{"id":3403,"date":"2017-07-31T08:22:50","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T15:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2017-07-31T08:22:50","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T15:22:50","slug":"putin-hits-back-at-sanctions-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=3403","title":{"rendered":"Putin hits back at sanctions bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MOSCOW \u2014 Even as it sought to punish the United States for imposing new sanctions by forcing the mass dismissal of employees from American diplomatic posts in Russia, the Kremlin left the door open on Monday for President Trump to avoid further escalation.<\/p>\n

Without mentioning the American president directly, Moscow seemed to be appealing to him to resurrect his campaign promise to try to improve Russian-American relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe will to normalize these relations should be placed on the record,\u201d Dmitri S. Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin, told reporters on Monday, and the \u201cattempt at sanctions diktat\u201d should be abandoned.<\/p>\n

The breadth of the dismissals demanded \u2014 755 people, most of whom will be Russian employees \u2014 was stunning even by the standards of the Cold War playbook from which the move seemed copied. But Mr. Peskov suggested that Russia had been forced to respond to Congress, and that it was not the Kremlin that was making matters worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we\u2019re not interested in those relations being subject to erosion,\u201d Mr. Peskov said. \u201cWe\u2019re interested in sustainable development of our relations and can only regret that, for now, we are far from this ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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