By making it clear that a bill is being prepared to impose “tough” measures against countries that continue to maintain trade relations with Russia, Moscow appears to be taking an ambiguous stance.
On the one hand, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the presentation of such a bill would be perceived by Russia “very negatively”, but on the other hand, again according to him, Moscow hopes that a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump could still take place, with the proper preparation of course.
The meeting that didn’t happen
Putin and Trump last met in August at a summit in Alaska, where they discussed a possible solution to ending the war in Ukraine.
Last month they announced plans for a summit in Budapest, but Trump canceled shortly after, saying the timing “didn’t seem right.”
Asked at the regular press briefing whether Moscow had missed an opportunity and under what conditions a new Putin-Trump meeting could take place, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:
“We can hardly predict now when these conditions will arise. Although, of course, we are all interested in them occurring as soon as possible.”
As he mentioned, both sides agree that a meeting requires serious preparation to be productive.
“So once that preparation is done and the right conditions are in place for the summit to take place, we hope it will happen.”
In announcing the cancellation of the Budapest summit last month, Trump once again expressed his frustration with Putin, saying:
“Every time I talk to Wladimir, we have good talks, and then they don’t go anywhere.”
Trump has already imposed harsh sanctions and is threatening more
On Oct. 22, he imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia — targeting oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil — for the first time in his second term.
On Sunday, Trump said Republicans in the US were working on a bill that would impose sanctions on any country doing business with Russia — something Peskov said would be received “very negatively” by Moscow.
“We will see how this bill develops and what details it will include. We would, of course, see it very negatively,” he said.
Trump has already sharply raised tariffs on Indian goods, citing India’s purchases of Russian oil, which Moscow said amounted to illegal trade pressure.
