In late March, the White House considered the question of unilateral weakening of sanctions against Russia’s oil sector, The Daily Beast reports quoting former U.S. officials, RNS reports.

According to the sources, the fact that the reduction of oil production in Russia could affect U.S. economy became the reason for such actions.

Meanwhile, the Department of State managed to convince the White House that the weakening of sanctions will affect U.S. energy sector. The employee of the Department of State wrote in one of the letters that “Russia continues the occupation of Ukraine, in particular the Crimea, and the conditions, which led to sanctions, did not change”.

Previously Yahoo News reported that within the next weeks after the inauguration, which took place on January 20, Trump and his administration planned to partially or fully cancel anti-Russian sanctions. In return, they wanted that Russia becomes U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism in Syria.

In its turn, The Daily Beast states that in March, the U.S. National Security Council applied to the Department of State with the request to analyze the negative effect of U.S. sanctions over the Russia’s oil sector, after Michael Flynn was dismissed from the post of the National Security Advisor.

According to the edition, the strategist of the National Security Council (NSC) Kevin Harrington considered the question of lifting sanctions from Russia within the investigation of U.S. general policy against Russia. He came to conclusion that the sanctions do not cause considerable harm against Russia, due to which NSC applied to the Department of State to question the expediency of sanctions, according to the sources.