U.S. sanctions against Russia have had an oppositie effect and have rather consolidated the Russians around their President, Anthony Scaramucci, the advisor for communications with busines to the U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump told TASS.
"You know the Russian people better than me," he said. "I think the sanctions had in some ways an opposite effect because of Russian culture. I think the Russians would eat snow if they had to survive. And so for me the sanctions probably galvanized the nation with the nation's President."
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"Long-term sanctions could be painful had they been effective in other areas," he said. "In other nations the answer is yes, or otherwise they wouldn't be using them if they weren't effective but what I think we have to do now is think outside the box."
"We have to make the world safer, we have to eliminate from the world the radical Islamic terrorism, and we have to figure out the ways to grow the wages for working-class families," Scaramucci said.
"Whether in Russia or in the U.S., I think there're a lot of common objectives," he indicated.
Scaramucci said some actions taken by the Russian government had been "met with some level of disapproval by the global community", but he added that "may be there will be an opportunity to sit down again" and to see if the sides could negotiate some of the things again.