Tillerson critical of Russia

washington - The new US Secretary of State considers Russia as a threat, but not unpredictable. Rex Tillerson's not to mention the recent Russian activities, and he sees no reason to lift the economic sanctions against Moscow.

Tillerson said Wednesday at a Senate hearing in Washington. He wants when he takes office on January 20, only a minute quiet regarding how things develop.

The 64-year-old minister is fairly well versed in Russian politics. He knows Putin personally because he, as president of the US oil company ExxonMobil was frequent in Moscow.

The sanctions were imposed after the annexation by Russia in early 2014 to the then Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Tillerson said at the Senate the annexation of Crimea illegal. Russia, he argued, has appropriated land that was not his.

About Russia's intervention in Syria, he was much more moderate. There is far Tillerson now known no war crimes.