Former UN ambassador John Bolton issued a stern warning Monday to President Donald Trump — to "negotiate with today's Russia at your peril."
In an op-ed column in the U.K.-based Telegraph, Bolton, who was under consideration to be Trump's secretary of state, said Russian President Vladimir Putin's denial to Trump of interference in the 2016 election should be "a highly salutary lesson about the character of Russia's leadership to watch Putin lie to him."
"And it should be a fire-bell-in-the-night warning about the value Moscow places on honesty, whether regarding election interference, nuclear proliferation, arms control or the Middle East: negotiate with today's Russia at your peril," he wrote.
Bolton also criticized a ceasefire deal for Syria announced after the Trump-Putin sit-down — calling it a "clear victory for Russia, Assad's regime, Hezbollah terrorists and Iran's Revolutionary Guard."
"Although humanitarian in intention, this deal substantially legitimizes Russia's participation in the Syrian struggle, thereby keeping Assad's dictatorship alive," he wrote.
"Any ceasefire necessarily relieves pressure on Assad on one front, which he can exploit on another."
Bolton also blasted statements by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after the announcement of the ceasefire as "a continuation of the Obama administration's delusion that Moscow shared our interest in removing Assad."
"Russia would acquiesce only if another Russian stooge were to fill his shoes," Bolton wrote.
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