Russian Senator Disproves Alleged US Plan on Sanctions, Crimea as 'Absurd'

A reported plan outlining a way for US President Donald Trump to lift anti-Russia sanctions and normalize Russian-Ukrainian relations is absurd and not coordinated with Moscow, a senior Russian senator told Sputnik on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The plan, reported by the New York Times on Sunday, calls for the "withdrawal of all Russian forces" from eastern Ukraine and a referendum to lease Crimea to Russia for 50-100 years. It was reportedly authored by Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, business associate Felix Sater and Ukraine's opposition lawmaker Andrii Artemenko, and left with then-national security adviser Michael Flynn's office before his ouster last week.

Victor Ozerov, chairman of the Council of the Federation Committee on Defense and Security, asserted that Moscow builds its own ties with the US "without needing the services of lawmakers from Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada."

"These proposals are absurd and unacceptable for Russia, they have not been coordinated with Russia," Ozerov stressed.

Crimea rejoined Russia after a 2014 referendum, when almost 97 percent of the region's population voted for the reunification. Sevastopol, which has a federal city status, supported the move by 95.6 percent of votes. During the election campaign Trump claimed he would "consider" recognizing Crimea as part of Russia following the referendum in the peninsula, adding that the Crimeans wanted to live in Russia.

On February 14, the White House spokesman said that Trump expects Russia to "return Crimea" to Ukraine.