In a tweet published Friday afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for a “great move” regarding an unspecified “delay.”
Trump praised the Russian president, who he dubbed “V. Putin” in the post, as “very smart.”
Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016
It was not immediately clear what “delay” Trump meant.
In a statement posted Friday on the Kremlin’s website, Putin said that Russia will not expel U.S. diplomats in response to the White House’s announcement of new sanctions against individuals and entities associated with Russian intelligence for election-related hacking.
In his own statement Thursday evening, presumably in response to the Obama administration’s actions against Russia, Trump said that it was “time for our country to move on to bigger and better things,” but that he would “meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.”
Speaking to reporters on a conference call Friday morning, Republican National Committee spokesman and incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that there is “nothing scheduled” between Trump and Putin with regard to the Obama administration’s actions.
