page_title: Russia–United States relations
section_title: 2018
hierarchical_section_title: Russia–United States relations / History / From Trump’s inauguration to present (January 20, 2017–present) / 2018
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Российско-американские переговоры с участием членов делегаций в формате рабочего завтрака.
context_page_description: Russia–United States relations refers to the bilateral relationship between the United States and the Russian Federation. The United States and Russia maintain diplomatic and trade relations. The relationship was generally warm under the Russian President Boris Yeltsin until the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999, and has since deteriorated significantly. In 2014, relations greatly deteriorated further due to the crisis in Ukraine, Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, differences regarding Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, and from the end of 2016 over Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Mutual sanctions imposed in 2014 remain in place.
context_section_description: A highly unusual unannounced visit to Washington D.C. at the end of January 2018 by the directors of Russia's three main intelligence and security agencies (FSB, SVR, and GRU), two of whom (Sergey Naryshkin and Igor Korobov) were on the U.S. sanctions list, and their reported meetings with top U.S. security officials caused political controversy in the U.S. and elicited no official comment in Russia, while it occurred days before the Trump administration chose not to impose immediately new sanctions on Russia at the deadline mandated by the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
  The U.S. air and artillery strike on a pro-government formation in eastern Syria on 7 February 2018, which caused massive death toll among Russian nationals and a political scandal in Russia, was billed by media as "the first deadly clash between citizens of Russia and the United States since the Cold War" and "an episode that threatens to deepen tensions with Moscow".
  Public statements read out by Vladimir Putin on 1 March 2018, days before the presidential election, about missile technology breakthroughs made by Russia, were referred to by the Trump administration officials as largely boastful untruths, as well as confirmation that "Russia ha[d] been developing destabilizing weapons systems for over a decade, in direct violation of its treaty obligations". U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis remarked that the systems Putin had talked about "[were] still years away" and he did not see them changing the military balance. Nevertheless, White House insiders were later quoted as saying that Putin′s claims "really got under the president [Trump]'s skin" and caused Trump to take a sharper tone behind the scenes vis-à-vis Vladimir Putin.
  On 26 March 2018, following the United States National Security Council′s recommendation, to demonstrate the U.S.'s support for the UK's position on the Salisbury poisoning incident, president Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of sixty Russian diplomats and closure of Russian consulate in Seattle. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov responded to the simultaneous expulsion of the total of 140 Russian diplomats by 25 countries by accusing the U.S. government of "blackmailing" other nations.
  In April 2018, US-Russian relations were further exacerbated by missile strikes against the Syrian government targets following the suspected chemical attack in Douma on 7 April. The countries clashed diplomatically, with Russia′s top military officials threatening to hit U.S. military targets in the event of a massive U.S.-led strike against Syria. In late May, during an interview with RT, Syria′s president Bashar al-Assad said that direct military conflict between the Russian forces and the U.S. forces in Syria had been averted in April "by the wisdom of the Russian leadership" and that the US-led missile attack against Syria would have been far more extensive had it not been for Russia′s intervention.
  On June 8, 2018, Trump called for Russia to be readmitted to the G-7, from which it was expelled after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
  Trump′s public statements during his first formal meeting with Putin in Helsinki on July 16, 2018, drew criticism from the Democratic members of the U.S. Congress and a number of former senior intelligence officials as well as some ranking members of the Republican party for appearing to have sided with Putin rather than accepting the findings of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election issued by the United States Intelligence Community. Republican senator John McCain called the press conference "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory." The press around the world ran publications that tended to assess the news conference following the presidents′ two-hour meeting as an event at which Trump had "projected weakness".
caption: Talks between U.S. delegation headed by Trump and Russian delegation headed by Vladimir Putin at the summit in Helsinki, July 16, 2018.
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