On Tuesday, McCain warned against “resetting” relations with Russia, given its recent aggressions in Syria and Ukraine and its interference in the U.S. election. The senator, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, did not mention President-elect Donald Trump by name in his statement.

“With the U.S. presidential transition underway, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin has said in recent days that he wants to improve relations with the United States,” said McCain, a longtime critic of Russia. “We should place as much faith in such statements as any other made by a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened America’s allies, and attempted to undermine America’s elections.”

McCain added that “the price of another ‘reset’ would be complicity in Putin and [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s butchery of the Syrian people. That is an unacceptable price for a great nation. When America has been at its greatest, it is when we have stood on the side [of] those fighting tyranny. That is where we must stand again.”