Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is “ready for negotiations” with U.S. President Donald Trump about how to end the war in Ukraine. File Photo by Shealah Craighead/UPI
UPI | Published January 26, 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is “ready for negotiations” with U.S. President Donald Trump about how to end the war in Ukraine.
Putin made the comments earlier in the week during an interview on Russian state television.
“We believe the current president’s statements about his readiness to work together. We are always open to this and ready for negotiations,” Putin said Friday during the interview.
“It would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly.”
Putin in February 2022 launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine that remains ongoing.
In comments made in December, the Russian leader said in hindsight, he should have begun the invasion even earlier.
Trump campaigned on a promise to end the war in Ukraine and earlier in the week said he was ready to meet Putin at any time.
This week, he said he would call for sanctions against Russia if Moscow did not take steps to make a deal to end the conflict.
“All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin a very big favor,” Trump said in his public negotiation on Truth Social.
“Settle now and stop this ridiculous war. It’s only going to get worse. If we don’t make a ‘deal’ 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.”
During the TV interview this week, Putin said the conflict may have been avoided entirely had Trump been in the Oval Office rather than former President Joe Biden.
“I can’t help but agree with (Trump) that if his victory had not been stolen in 2020, then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022,” Putin said during the TV appearance.
Putin has previously hinted at being open to talks with Trump on the Ukraine front without offering specifics or a timeline.
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SOURCE: www.upi.com
RELATED: What leverage does Trump have over Russia in Ukraine peace negotiations? Quite a lot, experts say
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends a private party and fireworks show at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, on Jan. 18, 2025. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
THE KYIV INDEPENDENT | Published January 26, 2025
Only days after U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, he dialed up the heat on Russia with a threat of sanctions, tariffs, and negotiating “the hard way” if Russian President Vladimir Putin fails to come to the table for a peace deal with Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly promised to push for a swift peace settlement once in office, prompting fears from some that he might pressure Kyiv towards painful concessions or — at worst — what would amount to a surrender.
His recent comments, however, suggest that Trump could be ready to take a hard line with Russia.
“In negotiations, it’s about who needs a deal the most,” says Timothy Ash, an associate fellow at the Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program. “I think the leverage is with Trump, not Putin.”
Trump has leverage in economic, military, and diplomatic terms — the main question is his willingness to use it.
Russia’s economy is showing signs of weakness, making Putin more vulnerable than ever to additional economic pressure like sanctions. Ramped-up support for Ukraine on the battlefield could add to Russia’s mounting losses and further incentivize dealmaking, as would uniting support among allies and squeezing Russia on the diplomatic stage.
“A long war doesn’t hurt Trump very much. There’s no huge cost to the U.S. economy. No U.S. lives are in danger,” said Ash, adding that a large portion of U.S. military aid has been reinvested in its domestic defense industry. “Trump can carry on, whereas for Putin, it just gets more difficult for him the longer it goes.”
‘Russia’s economy is not doing well’
The Trump administration is already signaling that sanctions are at the forefront of their negotiating plans with Russia.
“If a deal is not reached, I will 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 other participating countries,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social Jan. 22.
“If a deal is not reached, I will 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 other participating countries.”
Earlier in the month, Bloomberg reported that the administration has begun forming its sanctions strategy and will likely take one of two approaches: offering targeted relief to Russian oil producers to incentivize negotiations or significantly expanding sanctions to ramp up pressure.
Sanctions are “the best leverage we have,” said Edward Fishman, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and author of the forthcoming book “Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare.”
While the Group of Seven countries and the previous U.S. administration under President Joe Biden imposed heavy economic sanctions on Russia shortly after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they included significant carve-outs aimed at not disrupting the global energy markets.
After a contraction in 2022, aggressive defense spending contributed to Russia’s economic growth for the past two years, suggesting the effect of the sanctions has reduced after Russia’s economy adjusted and discovered workarounds.
But Russia’s economy is now showing cracks, said Fishman, and, “in the last 10 days of the Biden administration, the U.S. imposed pretty significant sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sector that meaningfully enhanced the pressure on Russia’s economy.”
The last-minute sanctions from the outgoing administration are likely intended to provide Trump with a strong negotiating hand in future talks. The new sanctions close many of the energy loopholes and could reduce Russian oil exports by between half a million and a million barrels per day in the short term.
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SOURCE: www.kyivindependent.com
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