Republican senators are ratcheting up their demands for President Donald Trump to put new sanctions on Russia, as the White House has signaled an openness toward a second phase of sanctions against Moscow.

“I think Russia is playing, they’re really playing us like a piano right now,” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said Wednesday.

“He’s gotten everything he wanted; he’s gotten access to the president, he’s getting a red carpet reception, three weeks later he’s getting a red carpet reception from Xi Jinping and hanging out with Kim Jong Un,” Tillis said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that Putin’s goal is to “string us along.”

The comments from Tillis, the co-chair the Senate NATO Observer Group, come after NATO fighter jets shot down multiple Russian drones that violated

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