Former President and Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev predicted that neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris will lift sanctions against Russia - RT reported.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that sweeping sanctions against Russia will remain in place regardless of who wins the US presidential election in November.
Last week, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged to “use sanctions as little as possible” if he returns to the White House.
In a post on Telegram, former President Medvedev asserted that Mr Trump's comments did not mean he would lift the sanctions currently in force against Moscow.
"For all his apparent ostentation as an 'outsider', Mr. Trump is ultimately an insider. He is also a pragmatist," the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council noted.
Mr Medvedev argued that the former US president understood that sanctions were damaging the role of the dollar as an international reserve currency, but that was not enough to go against the US's anti-Russian line, "which is much stronger than any Trump".
Mr Medvedev added that for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, “no surprises should be expected if she wins the election”. According to Mr Medvedev, “Kamala Harris is inexperienced. Beautiful speeches and boring ‘correct’ answers to questions will be prepared for her to read on a teleprompter”.
The former Russian president noted that the Soviet Union was under sanctions for most of the 20th century. Now, Russia is facing similar treatment from the US and its allies, but on a much larger, unprecedented scale.
“So it is a permanent sanction,” Mr. Medvedev wrote.
The US and its allies have imposed a record 22,000 sanctions on Moscow since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and conflict between Ukraine and the Donbass republics erupted after a Western-backed coup in Kiev.
The number of sanctions increased sharply after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Russian authorities condemned the sanctions as illegal, responding with travel bans on Western officials and other measures.
