Russia To Trump: You Promised

A couple kisses in front of graffiti depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, on the walls of a bar in the old town in Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, May 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

When you spend a considerable chunk of your campaign giving winks and air-kisses to a rogue regime, don’t be surprised if they eventually expect you to put out.

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According to Bloomberg, Russia is calling in their marker and insisting that Trump live up to his remarks about warming relations between the U.S. and Russia.

Apparently, recent moves by Trump’s White House don’t live up to the pre-election flirtations.

The White House’s call for Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine is at odds with Trump’s pre-election pledge to improve relations, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian lower house of parliament, told lawmakers Wednesday, the Interfax news service reported. They should wait for Trump’s “own words” on the subject and “everything will be fine” if he fulfills his election program, Volodin said.

Crimea is a part of Russia and its status won’t be discussed with the U.S., while news reports that Russian intelligence officers met with members of Trump’s election campaign “aren’t based on any facts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. Russian contacts that took place with Trump’s team were “normal diplomatic practice,” he said. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service declined to comment on what it called “unsubstantiated speculation.”

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The resignation of Michael Flynn, due to his communications with a Russian ambassador to the U.S. (although probably more due to the fact that he lied to the vice president about it) has given the Russian government a case of the sads.

They see this move as detrimental to the goal of creating a more positive connection between the U.S. and Russia.

That, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer saying on Tuesday that they expect Russia to deescalate violence in the Ukraine and to return Crimea.

Military tensions are also resurfacing for the first time since Trump’s election in November. Russia is meeting its commitments under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Peskov said, after the New York Times reported Wednesday that the Russian military has deployed a new cruise missile that U.S. officials say violates the pact.

And no, Russia did not fly jets near a U.S. warship in the Black Sea last week, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. Their aircraft flew over neutral waters in accordance with international law.

They say.

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It was actually the actions of the U.S. that were unnerving, according to Ruslan Pukhov, director of Moscow-based CAST center for military studies. The warships that close to Russia got them nervous, and has nothing to do with Trump, he claims.

While Russia’s committed to “full restoration” of ties, “we see that pressure is continuing on Trump” from forces in the U.S. “who are trying to push anti-Russian stereotypes,” Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament and the country’s third most senior politician, told journalists on Wednesday, according to Interfax.

Yeah, it’s the rest of the American government going all Yoko Ono and trying to break up the band, apparently.

And since I haven’t said this in a while, let’s just refresh our collective memories: Russia is not our friend.

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