 "Russia's President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Donald Trump during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. File Photo/Reuters")
The Kremlin on Monday said that Russia and the US are exploring ideas for a potential peace settlement in Ukraine while also seeking to strengthen bilateral relations, even as US President Donald Trump said he was “pissed off” at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump voiced frustration after Putin criticised the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and indicated he might impose secondary tariffs of 25% to 50% on buyers of Russian oil.
Later, Trump told reporters he was disappointed with Putin but emphasised, “I think we are making progress, step by step.”
Responding to Trump’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow is still engaging with Washington and that Putin is open to maintaining contact with Trump.
“We are continuing to work with the American side, first of all to build our bilateral relations, which were badly damaged during the previous (US) administration,” Reuters quoted Peskov as saying.
“And we are also working on the implementation of some ideas related to the Ukrainian settlement. This work is underway, but so far there are no specifics that we could or should tell you about. This is a time-consuming process, probably due to its complexity,” Peskov added.
A call between Trump and Putin, he said, could be arranged at short notice if necessary, though none was scheduled for this week.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants the three-year conflict in Ukraine to end and has warned of the risks of it escalating into a world war between the US and Russia.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsFinland’s President Alexander Stubb said on Sunday he had told Trump during a Florida meeting on Saturday that a deadline needs to be set for establishing a Ukraine ceasefire in order to make it happen.
“I came out with an impression that obviously he’s the only person who can broker a peace, a ceasefire, because he’s the only one that Putin is afraid of and in that sense, respects,” Stubb told Sky News in an interview on Monday.
“We were talking a lot about the ceasefire, the frustrations he had that Russia was not committing to it.”
Oil and rare earths
Since taking office in January, Trump has shifted the US to a more conciliatory stance towards Russia that has left Western allies wary as he tries to broker an end to the war.
His comments about Putin on Sunday reflect his growing frustration about the lack of movement on a ceasefire.
“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 … 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,” Trump said. “There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil.”
Oil prices were little changed on Monday as traders tried to work out how Trump’s threat of secondary tariffs against the world’s second largest oil exporter might look.
China and India buy about 80% of Russian crude exports. Chinese traders said they were unfazed by the threat, while Beijing said its cooperation with Russia was neither directed against, nor affected by, third parties. India declined comment.
Amid efforts by Trump to end the fighting in Ukraine, minerals cooperation has been floated by both Kyiv and Moscow, though Trump said on Sunday that Zelenskyy wanted to back out of a proposed deal.
Russia and the US have started talks on joint rare earth metals and other projects in Russia, and some companies have already expressed an interest in them, Putin’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said on Monday.
“There are no specifics here yet, but the interest is evident. The interest is mutual because we’re talking about mutually beneficial projects,” Peskov told reporters.
With inputs from agencies