Trump administration on verge of crisis over Russia: Analyst

The administration of US President Donald Trump is doing everything in its power to avoid a political crisis with Russia over the Crimean peninsula, says James Jatras, a former US senate foreign policy adviser.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said US President Donald Trump “expects the Russian government to de-escalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea."

Trump repeated the call in a tweet on Wednesday morning, as he tried to contain the damage caused by the resignation of his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, over ties to Russia.

Russia rejected the calls, saying that the strategic peninsula in the Baltic Sea was part of Russian territory.

“We don't give back our own territory. Crimea is territory belonging to the Russian Federation,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Wednesday.

“It was surprising that Moscow would respond to the Trump White House regarding a call to return Crimea to Ukraine,”

Jatras told reporter on Wednesday. “I don’t think anybody at the White house or the new State Department would have thought otherwise.”

The analyst argued that the Trump administration’s call was more like an effort to contain the damage caused by the resignation of Michael Flynn, the president’s national security adviser.

Flynn stepped down on Monday after mounting evidence suggested that he had discussed former President Barack

Obama’s anti-Russia sanctions with Russia's ambassador to the US, well before Trump’s inauguration.

“There is a lot of pressure being put on the White House and the Trump administration to modify its position toward Russia or its desire to improve relations with Russia,” Jatras argued. “I assume this was simply a throwaway statement along those lines.”

“I think we are approaching a possible crisis here in Washington and this is simply a symptom of it,” he concluded.

Trump reacted to the Flynn’s news by drawing attention to what he called “illegal leaks” coming out of the White House.

He also said that the allegations of “Russian connection” were intended to cover up similar accusations against him during the presidential election campaign.

Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17, 2014 and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum, in which 96.8 percent of participants voted in favor of the move.