Donald Trump has threatened Russia with taxes, tariffs and sanctions if a deal to end the war in Ukraine is not struck soon, as the new US president tries to increase pressure on Moscow to start negotiations with Kyiv.
Writing in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said Russia’s economy was failing and urged Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war”.Without a deal, Trump said, “I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
The statement marks Trump’s most detailed efforts yet to end the war in Ukraine. During the election campaign, he said he would end the war “in 24 hours” if elected. “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better,” he said.
Sanctions haven’t worked for three years, and Russia has already successfully diverted its economy away from the west at this point. The Financial Post was literally just reporting how Russia’s budget revenue rose to a record high last month even after the US targeted the banking sector with a new round of sanctions aimed at disrupting foreign trade payments and curbing proceeds from exports.
https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/russias-budget-revenue-surges-to-record-in-december-despite-sanctions
The key here is that he said “and other participating countries”, as though he had the power to set tarrifs on behalf of other countries, like England did in China during the century of humiliation. Outrifht neocolonizing of Europe would be a fuck.