Commenting on the new portion of the punitive measures, Russian political analyst, a leader of United Youth Front civil movement Nikolai Shlyamin told Radio Sputnik that the major task of the outgoing US administrations seems to be to complicate future presidency of President-Elect Donald Trump.
"While leaving, they simply want to slam the door," he said.
"The new set of anti-Russian sanctions seems to be preeminently a war among different political groups within the US and an attempt to further complicate the presidency of Donald Trump," he told Radio Sputnik.
The political analyst said that in his presidential campaign the president-elect urged for the rapprochement in relations with Russia. However, there is a very strong lobby within the US which is interested in confrontation with Russia despite losing the presidential elections.
In this vein, it will try to prevent Trump from delivering on his electoral promises by creating muddying the waters before Obama leaves office.
Shlyamin further suggested that in case Donald Trump wants to reconsider the punitive measures just introduced, there will be certain information warfare in the US media and among the US establishment aimed against the 45th US president: they will accuse Trump of backing down and giving in on the confrontation with Russia.
Thus, he went on, they will accuse him of not being hard enough and will question the policies he outlined in his presidential campaign.
"The US military-industrial lobby is gleefully rubbing its hands as the sanctions are a godsend for them: it means rearmament of the army and new sources of revenue," he explained.
Donald Trump however, he said, is the only person capable of shutting down their "gravy-train." But the analyst warned that throughout his presidential term, this war-lobby will continue their attempts to destabilize relations with Russia, whipping up military hysteria just like the years of the Cold War, he finally suggested.
