Trump’s Patience With Putin Runs Thin, But Does He Hold Any Cards?

Trump’s Patience With Putin Runs Thin, But Does He Hold Any Cards?

US President Donald Trump’s quote over the weekend that he is “pissed off” about Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin’s resistance to a ceasefire in Ukraine may have reverberated around the Kremlin’s walls, but analysts are wondering if Putin has tuned out that noise completely as they question what the self-described deal-maker-in-chief in the White House can actually do about it.

“If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, referring to Putin.

“[Putin] is supposed to be making a deal with [Zelensky], whether you like him or you don’t like him. So I wasn’t happy with that,” Trump said. He has threatened 25-point tariffs on Russian oil if the Kremlin does not comply with terms discussed at recent peace talks in Saudi Arabia, but geo-economic experts are warning that such a threat could be meaningless in the end.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, after golf with Trump on Saturday, told Sky News: “I do think that the president of the United States is a very skillful negotiator, and he’s trying to find the right balance.

“My message was, he’s the only one who can do it, and now we need a deadline for the ceasefire. And for me, the deadline would be the 20th of April, when he’s been in office for three months, and also when we have Easter. “

However, he added, “This is sort of where Putin is strongest. And I think, when you put him in a room or phone call with Donald Trump, or have their deputies speak, the Russians are very good at sort of massaging the language and hitting the nerves and making this thing look like everything is going to be OK,” he said.

The Finnish leader concluded: “My message to President Trump, when he asked, ‘Can I trust Putin’ was, ‘No, you can’t.”

Moreover, analysts have said that the impact of any US penalties on buying Russian oil would be limited.

The tariffs would likely boost oil prices in the short term if countries opt for other oil sources as a result, but the tariff’s effectiveness and resulting market fluctuations are unclear at this stage, given the lack of details, particularly on how the tariffs would be imposed.

Source: Kyiv Post