Trump said sanctions advocates against Russia apologized over the Hubbard negotiations

Trump reported apologies from sanctions advocates

US President Donald Trump said that many advocates of immediately imposing sanctions on Russia called him to apologize. According to him, these people did not know about the negotiations to secure the release of American Stephen Hubbard. 'Many people who demanded the immediate imposition of sanctions against Russia called President Trump to apologize for not knowing about his negotiations to secure the release of Stephen Hubbard, which is a truly important and significant deal for the United States. If the sanctions had been imposed, these negotiations would certainly have been completely halted,' Trump wrote on Truth Social (the post is quoted by Life.ru).

Refusal of sanctions and Hubbard's release

Last week Trump declined to apply the harsh anti-Russian sanctionsprovided for by a law developed with the participation of the late Senator Lindsey Graham*. The American president decided not to activate these measures for now. Earlier, the US president's special envoy Steve Witkoff thanked Vladimir Putin for the release of Stephen Hubbard. The American was convicted in Russia for participating in hostilities on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces and received six years and ten months in a penal colony. The day before, Trump said he had personally appealed to the Russian leader with a request to release the prisoner.

Context

Trump's statement ties together two recent events into a single picture: the suspension of the sanctions law and the release of the convicted American. According to the American leader, it was precisely the negotiations over Hubbard that caused the sanctions advocates to reconsider their position. There is no independent confirmation of these calls in available publications — the report relies on Trump's own words. * Lindsey Graham is included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring.