"We have improved our policy with respect to Russia, far more hawkish, far more realistic," US House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters at a news briefing.
Ryan recalled how Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the so-called “reset” policy with Russia.
"We remember them giving away missile defense to Russia for nothing in return. We have moved miles in the right direction on our Russia policy," the House speaker said.
16 April 2018, 18:33 GMT
In April, the United States imposed new sanctions against Russia over Moscow's alleged global destabilization efforts. The new sanctions targeted senior government officials and lawmakers, as well as major business owners and the private and state-owned companies under their control. Among those sanctioned were Oleg Deripaska with the En+ Group, the GAZ Group, Basic Element and Rusal; Viktor Vekselberg and Renova Group; Suleiman Kerimov, Kirill Shamalov, Gazprom head Alexey Miller, and VTB Bank President Andrey Kostin.
The Russian leadership does not exclude the possibility that Washington may take a hard line on new anti-Russia sanctions to impose the maximum amount of harm on the country's economy and is considering safeguard measures to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, a Russian news outlet reported.
