Russia does not care about U.S. President Donald Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum” about slapping sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Moscow agrees to a peace deal in Ukraine, a senior security official said on Tuesday.
Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, on Monday, announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened secondary tariffs of 100% on the buyers of Russian exports, of which crude makes up a major chunk.
The U.S. president also expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin, saying he did not want to call the Russian leader “an assassin, but he’s a tough guy”.
“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a post in English on X. “The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”
The Kremlin has so far not commented on Trump’s remarks but said on Monday it was clear that the United States had continued to supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
In Washington, a White House official said Trump’s intention is to impose “100% tariffs on Russia” and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy oil from Russia if a peace deal is not struck in 50 days.
Eighty-five of the 100 U.S. senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would give Trump the authority to impose 500% tariffs on any country that helps Russia, but the chamber’s Republican leaders have been waiting for Trump to give them the go-ahead for a vote.
China and India are the biggest buyers of Russian crude. Trump told the BBC that he was “not done” with Putin and that he thought a Ukraine peace deal was on the cards.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Gareth Jones)