In a post on his Truth Social network, the Republican threatened the country with tariffs and new sanctions if there is no solution within 100 days to the war in Ukraine
The government of this Thursday (23) minimized the threats made by the president of the United States, on Wednesday, 22, to the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. In a post on his Truth Social network, the Republican threatened Russia with tariffs and new sanctions if there is no solution to the war in Russia within 100 days.
According to Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov, there is nothing particularly new in the statements. “It’s been clear since Trump’s first term that he likes sanctions, but we follow his statements closely,” he said. “We remain ready for dialogue, dialogue on equal footing and mutual respect.” In a post on his social network Truth Social this Wednesday, 22, Trump stated that the Russian economy is in trouble and would do Vladimir Putin a “great favor” by ending the war.
“If we don’t reach a ‘deal’ soon, I have no choice but to apply high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions to everything sold by Russia to the United States and several other participating countries. Let’s end this war, which would never have started if I were president,” he wrote. Before his inauguration on Monday, Trump had promised to end the war in Ukraine before he even took office, raising the prospect that he could force Kiev to make concessions to Moscow.
But there is little sign that economic threats could make Putin relent. Apart from small amounts of fertilizers, animal feed and machinery, Russia currently exports almost nothing to the US. According to Bloomberg, the US imported around US$4.6 billion in goods from Russia in 2023, which represents less than 0.2% of total imports.
Furthermore, the country is already one of the most sanctioned nations in the world. The US has already imposed several sanctions against Moscow due to the war during the Biden administration, but others are previous and some were imposed during Trump’s first term. And so far they have had little or no coercive effect.
At Tuesday’s press conference, the US president did not comment on whether he intends to continue his predecessor’s policy of sending weapons to Ukraine to combat the Russian invasion. “We are examining this,” he declared. “We are talking to (Ukrainian President Volodmir) Zelensky, we will talk to President Putin very soon,” he said. (With international agencies).
Published by Luisa Cardoso
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo
