I don't know what Trump's motives are for easing the sanctions.
But I always was and still am 100% against the sanctions (if they were for the Crimea).
From OP article:
'watering down the toughest penalties imposed on Russian entities since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.'
Let's look at the facts:
'The official result from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a 96.77 percent vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation with an 83.1 percent voter turnout.'
2014 Crimean status referendum - Wikipedia
So, over 96% of Crimean's voted to join Russia. And before people say 'well, Russian troops were present during the vote'? Well, American troops were present during votes in Iraq and Afghanistan...are you prepared to ignore those results as well?
Plus, Russian troops were legally allowed to be in the Crimea as the Russians had a large, naval base located there (at Sevastopol).
Also, long after the referendum, Crimean's were still overwhelmingly for joining Russia.
One Year After Russia Annexed Crimea, Locals Prefer Moscow To Kiev
In Canada, for example, a province only needs about 66% to start negotiations to leave the country. But in the Ukraine, a region cannot leave unless the rest of the country agrees. That is utter and complete nonsense. Obviously, the rest of the nation will never agree...so the region is legally unable to EVER leave - even if 100% of the population wants to. That is barbaric.
And look what happened in the Donbass region? They overwhelmingly voted to leave as well, but Kiev would have none of that. So they attacked. They literally would rather kill you rather then let you leave. Again, barbaric.
The ONLY reason that nightmare (and all the thousands of deaths) did not happen in the Crimea was because Russian troops stopped Kiev from attacking the Crimea.
The Russians saved lives on that occasion.
Now, I am not saying Putin's motives were wonderful - they clearly were not.
But the fact remains that almost all Crimeans wanted to leave the Ukraine and Kiev was going to attack and kill them if they had not been protected by Russian troops.
Russia did NOTHING WRONG in regards to what happened in the Crimea. NOTHING.
And the ONLY reason the west is SO up in arms about it is because they are terrified that if they do nothing, it will embolden disgruntled regions in their countries to leave. And politicians almost NEVER like to lose power.