Putin tests how far Trump can go in pressuring EU to ease sanctions

Bloomberg reports.

According to the media outlet's sources, the Kremlin is deliberately trying to find out the extent of US President Donald Trump's willingness to put pressure on Europe to ease sanctions against Russia.

A condition for Russia's acceptance of the US-brokered truce in the Black Sea is the reconnection of one of Russia's largest state-owned banks to the SWIFT international system. If fulfilled, this will lead to a gradual easing of the sanctions as a whole.

 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that some of Russia's conditions “include sanctions that are not ours, they belong to the European Union.” Therefore, he said, officials will consider what Russia is asking for in exchange, and then Trump will decide on his next step.

Pavel Danilin, a political analyst who works with the Kremlin, called this tactic a “test for Trump,” as Putin wants to see how well the US president will cope with his promises.

Russia raised the issue of reconnecting its banks to SWIFT at the talks with US officials in the Saudi capital Riyadh and “the Americans took it calmly,” Grigory Karasin, one of the heads of the Russian delegation at the negotiations, said.

The current US administration is “interested in dialog with us, in finding joint approaches and solutions,” said Karasin. “Then, you’ll see, Europe will slowly start to return to common sense, to some kind of realism,” he added.