The rift between Moscow and Washington looks set to deepen after U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Russia’s economy “stinks” and that lower oil prices will hammer President Vladimir Putin’s oil-funded war machine.
“Putin will stop killing people if you get energy down another $10 a barrel. He’s going to have no choice because his economy stinks,” the president told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The comments come after relations between Moscow and Washington, which remained cordial at the start of Trump’s second term in office despite the ongoing war, soured in recent weeks.
Trump has appeared to lose patience with Putin given Russia’s apparent reluctance to pursue a ceasefire or peace deal with Ukraine. Last Monday, the president said he was cutting from 50 days to less than two weeks his deadline for Putin to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face big “secondary tariffs” on Moscow’s trade partners.
That prompted former Russian President and high-ranking Russian official Dmitry Medvedev to respond on social media that each new ultimatum that Trump makes about Russia to force an end to its war on Ukraine “is a threat and a step towards war.”
