Trump's stance makes Russia sanctions 'amorphous' — expert

Mykhailo Honchar, president of the Center for Global Studies Strategy XXI, expert on international energy and security relations, stated this on Espreso TV.

He was responding to a question about the importance of leadership from certain politicians on the issue of imposing sanctions, for them to champion the cause and move it forward.

"Of course. But here we should proceed from the fact that this is precisely the context where the role of the American leader, Donald Trump, should be. Because while some European leaders do take a sufficiently tough stance on Russia, they are not in the same weight class," the expert said.

Honchar stressed that a synergy of European and American efforts would be important in this regard.

"But it is missing, especially when we see Donald Trump looking at NATO from the sidelines, as if the United States were not a NATO member country. He says that NATO should take certain steps, and then we will get involved. Therefore, this loss of a leadership position significantly contributes to the situation with sanctions becoming more amorphous. Nevertheless, I believe the success is that we are not seeing what Trump promised, which was to review and soften the sanctions. This means a serious rollback has not occurred," he concluded.