Mauri Ratilainen / EPA
The bilateral summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Helsinki
In short, the new US president believes he convinces the Russian president because of economic sanctions.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, assured this Wednesday that, if Moscow does not immediately reach an agreement with Ukraine, his Government will impose high tariffs and sanctions on everything imported from Russia.
“This is the time to try to reach an agreement”, wrote Trump on the Social Truth platform, ensuring that this will always be a solution of last resort.
“I’m not trying to harm Russia. I love the Russian people and I have always had a very good relationship with President Putin”, explained the American President, taking the opportunity to press the position of Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, on the conflict in Ukraine.
“If we do not reach an agreement soon, I will have no choice but to impose high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on any product that Russia sells to the United States, as well as other participating countries,” Trump threatened.
Although Trump has not specified which countries may be sanctioned, China, Iran and North Korea — which are already subject to US trade restrictions — are those that have most supported Russia, with shipments of military equipment or diplomatic support in international organizations. .
The US President also appealed directly to Putin, saying that ending the war would benefit Russia, given the current state of its economy.
The New Republic writes that Donald Trump’s plan is “genius” – read with irony.
https://newrepublic.com/post/190551/trump-plan-tariffs-russia-ukraine-war
For almost three years, Russia has been the target of multiple economic sanctions, coming from hundreds of sides (countries, companies, organizations).
But Putin never ended the war because of this. In fact, according to the president, Russia’s economy was even grateful for these decisions because national companies improved – although official figures say otherwise.
The New Republic reinforces the feeling that Donald Trump never had a concrete plan to end the war in Ukraine. Much less in 24 hours, as announced.
Remember that Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, recently reduced expectations, in an interview with the Fox News television network, speaking of a period of 100 days to negotiate peace.
What’s more: just four months ago, also during the election campaign, Trump assured that he would not impose new sanctions on Russia if he were elected president.
It is unlikely that Russia will respond in the way that Donald Trump would like.
Despite the threat of tariffs against Russia, trade between the two countries had already been severely limited since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States imposed numerous sanctions against Russia, including restrictions on the oil sector and major Russian banks, with the aim of isolating Moscow from the dollar-based international financial system.
According to the most recent data made available by US authorities, trade in goods and services between the United States and Russia in 2022 reached an estimated total of 20 billion dollars (around 19 billion euros).
