On Wednesday, US new President Donald Trump targeted an ultimatum to Russia President Valdimir Putin: end the war or is punished with sanctions and customs.
“If we do not get an agreement soon, I have no choice but to introduce high taxes and penalties and sanctions on all lasts that Russia sells to the United States and other participating countries,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
According to Russian scholar Malcolm Dixelius, Trump’s threat can have an effect.
– Russia is in an economically very precarious situation. It is possible that sanctions play an important role, but they are slow and have nothing to do with Trump’s ambition to get a quick solution to the conflict. At the same time, Trump’s threat is regarded as most ridiculous in Russia because you are already under sanctions, and the picture in Russia is that you can handle the sanctions, says Malcolm Dixelius.
Strokes Trump with hair
Former Lieutenant Colonel Joakim Paasikivi shares the picture, nor does it believe that any peace talks between Russia and the United States will lead somewhere.
– It can lead to some kind of concrete peace plan in the long run, but the risk is that you talk about Ukrainian and European head – that you want to deal with everything into colonial or imperial manners and divide Europe between them, says Joakim Paasiki.
From Moscow, one has made an effort to give their picture of reality. Among other things, it has been lamented that Trump was “cheated” on the victory in the 2020 presidential election and claimed that the war might never have recovered if Trump became president that year.
“You have already started to delete Trump with Putin to become friends with Trump,” says Joakim Paasikivi.
Yesterday 11:44
Trump and Putin in conversation: “The whole world order is at stake”
“The whole world order is at stake”
Exactly what may come out between a meeting between Trump and Putin is unclear, but according to Malcolm Dixelius there is no deal of deal.
– They will each present their views on the war, and they will not reach any settlement whatsoever. On the Russian side, it will be said that it was the United States who wanted the meeting and that the United States had to listen to us.
Joakim Paasikivi agrees.
– It is obvious that this is not easy to solve. There are many incompatible positions between Ukraine and Russia. The risk is that they find each other and talk about other things, but substance in the Ukraine issue is far away.
“It is the entire world order that is at stake, and there we do not know what Trump is imagining,” says Malcolm Dixelius.