The new head of the White House has changed his tone and rhetoric. For the first time, as Welt writes, he is forced to threaten Moscow with sanctions if the Kremlin leader does not want to negotiate with Kiev. This change in strategy shows that Trump is beginning to recognize the reality of relations with Moscow
The new US president, Donald Trump, has long boasted about his supposedly friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin. But on Wednesday, two days after taking office for his second term in the Oval Office, he threatened the Russian leader for the first time if he refused to negotiate with Ukraine. And after that, as Die Welt points out in its analysis, there is a significant change in strategy in Washington.
Now the new head of the White House has changed his tone and rhetoric. For the first time, as Welt writes, he is forced to threaten Moscow with sanctions if the Kremlin leader does not want to negotiate with Kiev. This change in strategy shows that Trump is starting to recognize the reality of relations with Moscow, estimates Gregor Schwung, Welt correspondent from Washington.
TRUMP’S THREATS
As early as Monday evening, shortly after his inauguration earlier that day, he made it clear that he doubted the Kremlin’s willingness to negotiate. “I don’t know if Putin wants to make a deal,” he admitted, adding: “I think he will destroy Russia if he doesn’t make a deal.” On Wednesday, according to Welt, he took another logical step.
“If we don’t make a deal soon, I will have no choice but to impose high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything Russia sells to the United States,” Trump threatened on his social media platform Truth Social. The new US government also doesn’t want to let Putin fulfill Russia’s dream of Ukraine permanently outside NATO.
CHANGE OF ATTITUDE
For Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council think tank, this is a return to a familiar position. “Many have forgotten that Trump handed over Javelin (anti-tank) missiles to the Ukrainians. (Former US President Barack) Obama refused to do that. He also imposed sanctions on the operators of Nord Stream 2,” Haring recalled. “Despite his previous friendly stance towards Putin, it is clear that he does not want to appear weak when it comes to Russia,” Haring concluded.
For its part, Kiev hopes Trump will end the nearly three-year war and force Putin to the negotiating table. “Trump is a businessman. He knows how to put pressure on,” Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday after a fiery speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that he was “full of hope” when it came to the new US administration.
NEGOTIATIONS
Prominent Russian political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the political analysis company R.Politik, says that despite Trump’s efforts to force Putin to negotiate, the Russian leader seems confident that he has the resources to overcome the war in Ukraine. “A peace deal on Russia’s terms would save significant resources, but in the absence of such a deal, Putin is prepared to fight for as long as necessary,” she wrote, according to The Guardian. She added that the current economic situation in Russia is unlikely to force Putin to negotiate with Ukraine. “If the Kremlin concludes that there will be no favorable deal with Trump, it will probably focus on prolonging the conflict,” Stanovaya concluded.
TROUBLES FOR THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY
President Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly concerned about the Russian economy. It, driven by oil, gas and mineral exports, has grown strongly over the past two years despite multiple rounds of Western sanctions imposed after the 2012 invasion of Ukraine. But domestic activity has been strained in recent months by a labor shortage and high interest rates imposed to tackle inflation, which has accelerated under record military spending. That has contributed to the view within some of the Russian elite that a negotiated resolution to the war is desirable, according to two sources familiar with Kremlin thinking.