Shortly after the absolutely unsurprising re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump was given explicit instructions in his daily briefing materials to avoid congratulating his counterpart. But despite the all-caps notation reading “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” Trump did so anyway, according to a report Tuesday by The Washington Post. According to a White House statement, “President Trump congratulated President Putin on his March 18 re-election, and emphasized the importance of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The president did neither, and the Post said it was unclear if Trump had even read the material. Last week, however, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on several Russian citizens and organizations over the country’s role in such meddling.

Source: Huffington Post March 21, 2018 00:33 UTC