Story highlights Trump has signaled a desire to foster warmer relations with Moscow

Power has sparred publicly with her Russian counterpart on the UN Security Council

Washington (CNN) As US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power prepares to step down from the diplomatic stage, she is offering a word of warning to President-elect Donald Trump and his team: dismiss Russian acts of aggression at your own peril.

"I would be concerned if we looked away from Russian interference in our election," Power told CNN in an interview Tuesday, days before her term ends.

"I would be concerned if a country that just lopped off part of a neighbor got to keep that," she said, referring to Trump's signals that he was open to recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, "because I think it would unleash dynamics around the globe that we can't even predict."

Power added: "I would certainly be concerned if we thought that violating human rights, murdering opposition politicians and journalists, and some of the tactics that Putin has used internally -- that that would make for a reliable partnership over time."

Trump has so far signaled a desire to foster warmer relations with Moscow, suggesting in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal that he'd consider sanctions relief in exchange for cooperation on nuclear arms reduction.

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