U.S. VP Pence says Russia's stance must change before ties improve

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence delivers a speech during a meeting with U.S. troops taking part in NATO led joint military exercises Noble Partner 2017 at the Vaziani military base near Tbilisi, Georgia August 1, 2017. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze

TBILISI (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday that relations with Russia would not improve until Moscow changed its stance on Ukraine and withdrew support for "regimes like Iran and Syria and North Korea".

The U.S. Congress voted last week for new sanctions on Russia and, at a news conference in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, Pence said the "lifting of sanctions will require Russia to reverse the actions that caused sanctions to be imposed in the first place".