President Trump said on Sunday that he was “pissed off” at Russian President Vladimir Putin and warned he could hit Russia with “secondary tariffs” on its oil if a peace deal to end the Ukraine war isn’t reached.
Trump said he was unhappy with Putin questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy. On Friday, Putin suggested replacing Zelensky with a “transitional administration” to prepare for elections in Ukraine.
Putin’s comments came after Zelensky said that he believes the Russian leader will soon be dead. “He will die soon, that is a fact, and everything will be over,” Zelensky said in an interview on March 26.
Trump has previously criticized Zelensky for not holding elections and even called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator,” but said in a phone interview with NBC News that he was “angry” over Putin’s comments about the Ukrainian leader.
“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil,” the president added.
It remains unclear if the current negotiations between the US and Russia will lead to a full ceasefire in Ukraine and a lasting peace deal. While both sides have nominally agreed to stop targeting energy infrastructure and halting attacks on the Black Sea, fighting continues to rage across the frontlines, Russian strikes are pounding Ukraine, and Ukraine is still launching drones into Russia.
In their criticism of the failure to hold elections, both autocratic presidents of the USA and Russia do not consider the facts of how Ukraine conducts free elections in the illegally Russian-occupied or annexed territories of Ukraine?
Excluding those areas of Ukraine will probably enhance Zelenskyi's vote count. The Russian occupied regions were, and still are, predominantly pro-Russian. These regions were the power base of the Party of Regions. The last legally elected president of Ukraine was of the Party of Regions, Yanukovich.
You meant to say, how will Russian citizens of Russia annexed regions vote? Or you meant to say, how will ethnic Russians or Russian speakers vote in Russia occupied territories of Ukrsine?
What difference does it make. They are Russian that Zelenski did not want.. Ethnic Russians and Russian speaking Ukrainias as well as Ukrainian Orthodox believers WILL NOT VOTE, as the CANNOT VOTE just as they COULD NOT HAVE VOTED FOR ANYONE under Zelenski rule. Deprived of vote since 2014. Do you think thst tbere are some Zelenski voters there?
This fiction of a country created by Soviet Union, never ever had its borders with Russia recognized to start with.
As anything in Ukraine — fake informaton is served. . The agreement they cite for border recognition was CONDITIONED upon Ukraine recognizing Helsinki Final Acts — which Ukraine did not.
Minsk Agreemenrs were last chance saloon for Ukraine. But on NATO advice blew it. Too late now. Once Minsk was broken — disintegration started. Zelenski thought he could get away with keeping land but disenfranching people. He thought he can get away with it. And everybody thoughtRussia should let him have his little dirty ethnic cleansing? He and the collective NATO crossed the reddest of red lines. Aproved, and whitewashed ethnic cleansing.
FYI. There are still four regions with large manority Russian population who would rather be part of Russia: Mikolayevo, Odessa, Dnyepro and Kharkov. Since they are niow under UKRAINIAN control, how donyou think they will they vote? They will not be allowed to. Zelenski will not place voting boxes tvere. Not the first time he played that game. The population there will have not have a right to have a political party. Or a candidate for any office. Or media. Or even printed leaflets.
Let us get real. Zelenski is now having fun — playing games at Trump’s expense.
Zelenski so far agreed only to have Russia imlement cease fire, not him. Grain deal? Of course not? Zelenski increased attacks since he “agreed” to cease fire including attacks on incrastructure.
Trump can bark all he wants, but Zelenski sold Ukraine to Starmer, and Trumo can huff and puff but rsre earth minerals are already sold, OK?
We are finding out that Zelenski is having an upper hand — that show in the White House just underscores Trump’s impotence.
Russia wants real issues to be resolved — not waste time.
Specially since Trump is gearing up to start a war on Iran – to affect Russia’s southern border.
Now Zelenski is issuing death threats.
Trump seems to be losing the plot.
I'm pretty sure Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine will not vote; under Russia law those are Russian territories. I'm also sure that all the Ukrainians who took refuge in Russia (millions of them) will not get to vote either, while those who fled to the West will. Not to mention all the games Zelensky will play with the election – banning candidates, stuffing ballot boxes, etc.
Putin's not wrong, the only way to give all Ukrainians a fair chance to vote in a fair election would be to place Ukraine under UN administration.
If the UN could be trusted to hold free and fair elections, the only way to give any of the regimes involved free and fair elections would be to place them under UN administration. But I doubt that Trump or Putin would agree to it.
Now, I am neither Russian nor Ukrainian and view the events in Ukraine from an external political perspective. President Zelensky has been in power since May 2019; the Donbass conflict began in 2014 approximately coinciding with the inauguration of Ukrainian President Poroshenko of the party European Solidarity.
Do you also consider the legal conditions in Ukraine, particularly constitutional and criminal law? The immigrant Russian population of the Donbas region initiated a civil war of separatism, secession, which is against the Ukrainian Constitution and the Ukrainian Criminal Code regarding the norm of high treason.
https://hcj.gov.ua/sites/default/files/field/file/the_constitution_of_ukraine.pdf Article 73
https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2341-14?lang=en#Text The Criminal Code of Ukraine, Article 111. High treason
https://libmod.de/en/the-minsk-agreements-10-years-after-10-lessons-learned-for-future-negotiations-with-moscow/ "On the night of 12 February 2015, the ‘Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements’, or ‘Minsk II’ for short, was signed. The agreement was intended to end the war in eastern Ukraine and bring about a political solution to the conflict."
Trump said he was angry with Putin for attacking President Zelensky's credibility. LMFAO! Hypocrisy much?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06b540a3ebdaaee35609ceb86d267e34ed97d184228016ec959ac19306153e53.jpg
The Donald first needs to understand and accept Russian demands, which are no other than SECURITY GUARANTEES! Russia knows they can't get that while Zelensky or any other NATOist government is in power in Kiev. They also know that they're winning the war and that time is on their side.
Trump wants a deal? Sure thing, say the Muscovites: give us what we want (minus cosmetic concesions possibly): annexations, Ukrainian strict neutrality with non-NATO credible guarantors (China?), maybe a demilitarized buffer zone east of the Dniepr for good measure, and something that the USA can actually give: end of sanctions.
Deal?
I agree that Moscow should not accept anything less, otherwise they've fought a bloody war for nothing. But I'm beginning to seriously doubt that Trump is capable of negotiating any kind of deal, much less a deal of such magnitude that it would require a fundamental realignment of US foreign policy. I mean, he's just a bloviator clown and we've seen the dept of his understanding of international politics when he claimed he could stop the war in a day.
In short, I expect this whole thing to end the same way his negotiations with North Korea ended during his first term – lots of theatrics but nothing achieved, nothing changed.
Yes, absolutely.
Anyway, Trump and Musk have managed to form a vast coalition of disgruntled vassals: almost all the European chieftains plus Canada, and you can’t rule an Empire like that, so he has to step back and is actually doing so in Ukraine already (but has just doubled down on Greenland and the anti-EU tariffs remain, so “too little”, also “too late”?) Meanwhile Europe is actively moving against pro-Trump fascistoid actors: not just Romanian Georgescu was jailed and barred from running but now also no other than Marine Le Pen. Next, I forecast, Meloni and Orban will be removed and it’s even possible that the military commander of NATO won’t be anymore a US-American (which has been by tradition since the formation of the bloc).
Indirectly now Ukraine is not anymore a NATO vs Russia proxy war only but a NATO (majority) vs Trump conflict as well. When Zelensky challenged Trump at the White House weeks ago, most claimed that it was a fiasco by the Ukrainian but actually it was the first time when I held a modicum of respect for the petty dictator, and seems it’s paying out, as he became overnight the rally point of all those disgruntled NATO vassals. Ukraine will still lose the war… but it’ll take a couple of years (I guess), in the meantime it will for the first time serve the interests of Europe (and Canada).
If Trump cares so much about bloodsheds, he should start with Gaza where American weapons are massacring women and children every day in huge numbers.
Of course Zelensky is illegal. All procedures are prescribed in Ukrainian constitution. In case the presidential elections are postponed, the head of Ukrainian parliament must fulfill the presidential duties till next election.
The problem with Trump is that his is fundamentally immoral and badly advised on foreign politics.
I don't think he understands foreign policy at all. Elect a clown, expect a circus… and that's exactly what we got the first time, and that's exactly what we're now getting the second time.
Some say….. Better to be pissed off then to be pissed on….;-/
;-}
Dear Mr. PO'd POTUS, we are thinking Greenland is more your match, more likely frightened by your boisterous bellicosity
Whereas Putin is, as usual, phlegmatic.
Sanctions and tariffs, tariffs and sanctions. Trump is beginning to remind me of the talking dolls from the 1960s, the ones where you'd pull a string and it would put out a short phrase, picked randomly from five or six available.
"Mr. President, we need jobs in America!"
"I'm going to pass 300% tariffs on everything. Tariff is the most beautiful word in English!"
"Mr. President, the Russians are requiring conditions for peace."
"I'm go to put sanctions on everything they sell. No country can withstand the force of US sanctions!"
"Mr. President, your predecessor already applied all the sanctions against Russia that we can find."
"I'm going to pass 300% tariffs on everything. Tariff is the most beautiful word in English!"
Putin has outsmarted Trump and Trump is pissed. No one outsmarts the greatest president and leader of the world, it is "verboten" and he will show them.
Putin’s comments came after Zelensky said that he believes the Russian leader will soon be dead. “He will die soon, that is a fact, and everything will be over,” Zelensky said in an interview on March 26.
But of course. Boris Yeltsin was just exhumed. Vlod sounds like some of the people who comment here.
What it all suggests is Trump is seriously "muddled." The comment above indicates this: "and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be" . . . He doesn't have information on this, a view of what started, and what's at the heart of the conflict? In a short ten weeks he has already screwed up what was glowingly reported as "diplomacy." He wouldn't know diplomacy from whiskey and a cigar with the good ole boys in some backroom deal. And this is the supposed leader. When can we expect psychiatric evaluation and movement on Amendment 25?
“Zelensky said that he believes the Russian leader will soon be dead. “He will die soon, that is a fact, and everything will be over,” Zelensky said in an interview on March 26.”
Then this was reported:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/watch-putins-275000-limousine-explodes-in-moscow/amp_articleshow/119729238.cms
Zelensky is a psychopath with a pathological hatred of Russia. If he had nuclear weapons, I'm sure he would have used them to kill as many Russians as he can.
In fact, I'm sure that when psychiatrists get their heads out of their liberal pro-war asses, they'll study Zelensky for many years to come. Perhaps they'll even name a terrible degenerative brain disease after him.
“They’ll study Zelensky for many years to come”. Surely you can’t be serious?
The Rare Earth Element issue will play a big role in the attempts to end the Russo-Ukrainian war.
1. President Trump has powerfully stated that he and/or our nation needs the income from the Ukrainian REE's to compensate for all of the past US "loans" to Ukraine. In that context it is not yet clear who will do the mining of the ores and where to mine in the Ukraine. It is also not clear who will do the refining of the ores and where.
2. On mining. It is absolutely certain that Putin will continue the war if the demand by us is that the mining must be done by US owned or US controlled companies because that makes Ukraine to become protected by us. Any Russian attack on the mining may cause a big war.
For Putin, the mining can only be done by Russian-friendly companies. Who are these? In practical terms: only mining companies from the Russian federation.
Where in Ukraine? Putin is likely to demand "outside the Donbas region". That is not too hard for our side to accept as and estimated 80% of the Ukrainian REE minerals are outside the Donbas.
3. To be useful, the ores must be refined and the issues are very similar to #2. In addition, there is the issue of export for sale (US? Japan? UK? Germany? France?). Shipping must start in Odessa which needs protection. Then through the Red Sea which must be protected. Shipping ores for refinement makes the product needlessly expensive. Hence refinement will be done in Ukraine or nearby (Poland?).
5. If President Trump does not let go of our REE-demand, Putin will have a bag of causes to continue this war.
https://www.indianpunchline.com/trump-putin-parley-is-a-bit-under-the-weather/
Bulls**t bully tactics from Don Genocide, transparent and despicable.
I have quite learned friends who actually think BRICS is dissolving and all its members are leaving it and the RF and DPRC are moments from turning on each other in open warfare. This coallated from AP News, Reuters, PBS and CBC news sources, somehow. (Additionally these friends are 110% convinced the Crimea vote was conducted by door-to-door armed soldiers – who I guess allowed a double-digit percentage of voters to vote No to the Russian accession ?)
If anything this bullying should cement BRICS (or mortar it) and push it past original goals of mere economic cooperation. Possibly into a currency formation ?
"…after Zelensky said that he believes the Russian leader will soon be dead. “He will die soon, that is a fact, and everything will be over…"
I puzzle deeply at dips**ts who think no government, no company or corporation, no organization has, y'know, a succession plan. The way all of them do. Listing the next person to take over, who quite likely was chosen as such because their politics and vision tracks with established paradigm.
EASILY Putin's successor (assuming no "dead hand" machinations in place) will be either slightly more or slightly less zealous to bring the Russian Federation a win in Ukraine.
No deal…! So put your tariff on oil and see Europe reaction…!
It's time to rename the White House as the Nut House.
There are more fruitcakes in there than in Bellevue.
Alastair Crooke mentions former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov's "Strategic Procrastination." Strategic tolerance and patience.
In a deliberately negative policy for their citizens, the Germans, British, and French may be massing for war against Russia by printing money to 'prosperity' and solemnity without sufficient mineral resources.
The American business model doesn't allow for procrastination. Would a significant reduction or ban of income taxes allow workers and business owners less stress and more time for rational thought and actions?
Many Westerners support President Vladimir Putin's actions against the Western blob–its military and media component.
A new word for our collective vocabulary!…
Stop being such a dogebag!….!…..!…
Turkey, China, Brazil and India are the top oil buyers from Russia. Not a group to piss off if you are forming sides to start WW3. After that it's a bunch of middle eastern countries which make up about 10% of oil imported by the U.S. Not an economist but I can fudge the costs of that.
Better to be pissed off than to be pissed on!….