President Trump had his first officially scheduled telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, one of several calls scheduled with world leaders on a tense weekend of questions about likely changes in U.S. relationships across the Atlantic. Both Trump and Tillerson have been less than enthusiastic about economic sanctions imposed on Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Trump even suggested the U.S. could lift the sanctions if Russia agreed to compromise on nuclear arms, an unrelated matter. Russian officials, however, sought to downplay expectations. Alexei Pushkov, a Russian senator and former chairman of the parliamentary foreign relations committee, tweeted Saturday: "The Trump - Putin conversation will give a new beginning to the fight against IS, a solution of the crises in Syria, Ukraine.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 28, 2017 18:06 UTC