Article snippet: Neither President Russia, particularly because they may hinder attempts at restoring the relationship between the two countries, the top U.S. diplomat admitted Tuesday. "The action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place and the way they did, neither the President nor I were very happy about that," Tillerson told reporters in the Crimea. Tillerson added that the sanctions may hinder attempts at restoring the relationship between the two counties. "We were clear, we didn't think it would be helpful to our efforts ... we can’t let it take us off track of trying to restore the relationship .... [which is] under considerable stress." The secretary of state also revealed that during their meeting in the Oval Office in May, Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, "we need some good news" from Moscow. The pair met a day after Trump fired James Comey over the Russia investigation. Tillerson said he understood why Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the U.S. to drastically cut its diplomatic presence in Russia, even though the move was in retaliation for a similar U.S. action last year under President Barack Obama. Still, Putin's decision to do so came right after Congress voted to slap Russia with more economic sanctions. "I think it’s important to recognize that any leader of any country has their whole population watching them as well, and President Putin has his population of Russia watching him," Tillerson said. "And so I think the f... Link to the full article to read more