Republican senators visiting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier this week sent a strong and direct message to Russia's government, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., a member of the delegation, said Thursday.
"This is probably the largest delegation of senators to visit Russia in anybody's memory," Daines told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We sent a strong message and a direct message to the Russian government, first of all, don't interfere in U.S. elections."
The delegation also insisted the Russian government respect the sovereignty of Ukraine and to leave Crimea, and to "work with us to bring about peace in Syria, instead of working against us," Daines said.
It is important to remember Russia is in violation of many parts of the nuclear arms treaty, the senator also stressed.
"Remember that the United States and Russia comprise over 80 percent of the nuclear weapons on the planet," Daines said. "That is why this relationship is important. That is why dialogue is important. We went to send that direct message to the Russian leadership this past week in Moscow."
The delegation went in advance of President Donald Trump's upcoming face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Daines said he would not set expectations "too high."
"Getting back to conversation, it's important at the presidential level and congressional level and military level," Daines said.
He said he hopes Trump first and foremost establishes dialogue between himself and Putin again.
"It's been said that the U.S./Russia relationship is too big to fail as relates to the nuclear weapons," Daines said. "We need to put that back on the table. The Russians have been violating nuclear arms treaties in terms of short and medium-range nuclear weapons. The important thing is talking. You go back to the history of Helsinki. President Trump is reaching out to these world leaders and having dialogue. That's good for the world and good for the United States."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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