In an interview with Kremlin-owned Russian news agency Tass Thursday, former Federal Security Service (FSB) director Nikolai Kovalyov praised President Trump’s “consistency” on calls to ease sanctions.
As a member of the State Duma, the lower legislative house of the Russian Federaton, Kovalyov has a vested interest in U.S. sanctions relief. However, he claimed that better relations with Russia would mean a stronger anti-terror coalition for the United States.
Successive administrations have implemented executive orders to prohibit “all transactions and activities” of Russian spy agencies. Accused of killing political opponents with thallium (an element used in rat poison), making journalists disappear, harassing US diplomats, hacking into U.S. cyber-systems, FSB spies have been willing to employ whatever tactics necessary to advance President Putin’s agenda and undermine U.S. national security interests.
Nonetheless, President Trump has chosen to throw out the old playbook, instructing the US Treasury Department Thursday to amend former President Obama’s sanctions order on the FSB.
“The new authorization will allow U.S. companies to pay up to $5,000 a year to the FSB — which oversees technology imports into Russia — to secure licenses from the security services to export information technology products to Russia, as long as other aspects of the sanctions order aren’t violated, according to the document published by the Treasury,” reports Business Insider. “Obama issued harsh sanctions against the FSB — first in April 2015 and again in December of last year — which it accused of playing a role in hacking campaigns targeting U.S. citizens and infrastructure during the 2016 presidential campaign.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s olive branch to Russia appeared to please FSB operatives.
“This shows that actual joint work on establishing an anti-terrorism coalition is about to begin,” Kovalyov stated Thursday. “This is the first step on the way leading to cooperation in the war on terror.”
“Without easing these sanctions it would have been impossible to take the next step,” the FSB operative added. “These practical actions indicate that U.S. President Donald Trump has been consistent.”
While Moscow has peddled the myth that Russian soldiers have been at the forefront of the battle against terrorism, particularly in Syria, the truth is Putin has only targeted ISIS compounds when it served Russia’s interests or that of its client state, Syria.
Putin’s patronage to the genocidal regime of Bashar al-Assad has meant that anti-Assad forces, including U.S. backed opposition, are first on the hit list.
While Moscow has peddled the myth that Russian soldiers have been at the forefront of the battle against terrorism, particularly in Syria, the truth is Putin has only targeted ISIS compounds when it served Russia’s interests or that of its client state, Syria.
To be clear, Russia is lying when it says its air force has been primarily striking ISIS targets. Maps published by the Institute for the Study of War and the Levantine Group illustrate that Russian airstrikes have focused almost exclusively on forces opposing Assad. For the most part, Russia has left ISIS alone, prioritizing its main goal of keeping the Assad regime in power.
Russia’s recent behavior suggests that any argument claiming that the U.S. can rely on Putin’s army to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS should be heavily scrutinized, if not dismissed, until Russia provides assurances that it’s committed to rooting out the Islamic State without preconditions.