FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
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President Donald Trump’s threat to impose stiff taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Russia if an agreement isn’t reached to end the war in Ukraine is likely fall on deaf ears in the Kremlin as virtually all Russian products are already prohibited from import into the United States and the country has faced many U.S. and European sanctions since the invasion began nearly three years ago.
In a post to his Truth Social site Wednesday, Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war.”
He said he had no desire to hurt Russia and has a good relationship with Putin, but warned of penalties if the war isn’t stopped soon.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, 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 problem with the threat is that other than a small amount of fertilizer, animal feed and machinery, Russia currently exports almost no goods to the U.S. And, Russia is one of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations. Many of those sanctions relate to Russia’s Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine and were imposed by the Biden administration, but others predate Biden and some were imposed during Trump’s first term in office.
