Russian lawmakers give mixed reaction to Trump's nuclear cuts offer

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Parliamentarians in Russia gave a mixed reaction on Monday to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's proposal to strike a deal on nuclear arms cuts in exchange for Washington lifting sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis. Konstantin Kosachev, head of the upper house of parliament's international affairs committee, was cited by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying getting the sanctions annulled was not a goal in itself and not worth making security concessions for. "We consider them (the sanctions) a stupid legacy of the outgoing White House team that need to be consigned to history along with them," said Kosachev. But another Russian senator, Oleg Morozov, was quoted by the same agency as saying that Moscow would be ready to discuss the issue of nuclear cuts, something he said Russia itself favored. Trump told The Times of London in an interview published online on Sunday that he would propose offering to end sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reporting by Polina Devitt; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe)