Russian MP says outgoing US administration trying to spite Trump by imposing new sanctions

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. The outgoing US administration is trying to make matters worse for President-Elect Donald Trump and his team by imposing new sanctions against Russia, member of the country’s State Duma (lower house of parliament) Committee for International Affairs, Deputy Secretary of the United Russia Party General Council Sergei Zheleznyak told reporters on Friday.

"Through its inappropriate foreign policy moves, the outgoing Obama administration is trying to avenge Trump for his win in the presidential elections and complicate things as much as possible for the new president’s team. Nothing else can explain the current US authorities’ political fits," the lawmaker explained. In his opinion, "political losers are trying to slam the door on their way out showing the world their hysteric and evil nature and violating diplomatic rules and common sense."

According to Zheleznyak, "unfortunately, Obama has failed to control his feelings and leave office with dignity, thus totally ruining his reputation and making it hit bottom." "It is obvious that Obama has been using every opportunity to make matters worse for the new US president and complicate international affairs for him as much as possible," the Russian lawmaker stressed.

He also said that Obama made a huge mistake, if he thought that by undertaking such disastrous moves as expelling Russian diplomats and closing Russian compounds, he could "make Russia change its sovereign policy." "It would be strange if we expected him to make excuses for the supposed cyberattacks and other alleged malevolent deeds, but we won’t just sit back and watch him constantly attack and insult us," the legislator pointed out. He added that Russia did not "identify Obama and his administration with the American people with whom Russians are ready to build equal and meaningful cooperation."

Zheleznyak pointed to the fact that "newly-elect US leader Donald Trump has more than once expressed his opinion on the importance of Russia-US relations." "We harbor no illusions about all the accumulated problems being solved speedily after the new president takes office but we expect Mr. Trump to prove himself to be a sensible politician as far as international affairs go, and to tackle the issues the US has been facing rather than create new problems, the way his predecessor has been doing," Zheleznyak concluded.

As reported earlier, Washington slapped new sanctions on Moscow over the alleged hacking into US political institutions. These sanctions apply to several Russian companies, the Federal Security Service and the Main Intelligence Agency of Russia’s General Staff. Besides that, the US authorities expelled 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian compounds, in New York and Maryland.