Rex Tillerson on Russia
From Sec. Rex Tillerson | World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth · · dfwworld
“I first met Vladimir Putin in 1998 when he became the Prime Minister... Anna looks up to me and she has this real kind of cragly smile and she says so Mr Tillerson what did you think and I said Anna I said you know it was really weird... I looked in his eyes and it's like there were these shadowy figures back there but he wasn't there and she got this smile on her face and she said now you understand the KGB. She said a KGB agent is trained to be whatever he needs to be in the circumstance he finds himself. He didn't he was unfamiliar with the circumstances he found himself with you. He had never met anybody like you before so he chose to be nothing. You were going to get no information about him. He was going to get information about you.”
On , Rex Tillerson, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at ExxonMobil, spoke about Russia during Sec. Rex Tillerson | World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth on dfwworld.
About Rex Tillerson
Rex Tillerson served as U.S. Secretary of State from February 2017 to March 2018. During his tenure, he described the administration's approach to North Korea as a "peaceful pressure campaign," which he said was the same as what President Donald Trump called the "maximum pressure campaign." Tillerson stated that the re-designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in November 2017 was a step to hold the country accountable for actions including assassinations and the use of banned chemical weapons. He said the sanctions were having an effect, citing fuel shortages and reduced revenues, and expressed hope that the pressure would lead Kim Jong Un to reverse the nuclear weapons program. Tillerson was fired by President Trump on March 13, 2018, and announced he would delegate his responsibilities to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to ensure a smooth transition. In his farewell address to State Department staff, he said the department had "exceeded the expectations of almost everyone" with the North Korea pressure campaign and noted accomplishments including ceasefires in Syria and the adoption of a South Asia strategy. He also said Russia must "assess carefully" its actions, warning that continuing on its current trajectory could lead to "greater isolation." In his final remarks, Tillerson told staff that Washington "can be a very mean-spirited town" but that "you don't have to choose to participate in that."