While Iran takes an offensive stance against Trump and his ambitions to finally bring Tehran to heel on its nuclear expansion, Russia is taking a different approach as it refuses to bow to Trump’s plans to see an end to the war in Ukraine.
Over the weekend, Trump said he was “pissed off” over comments made by Putin on Friday when he suggested the work Washington was doing to negotiate a ceasefire with Russia and Ukraine was moot because he believes the government in Kyiv to be illegitimate and therefore cannot sign any deals.
“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, noting that tariffs could be as high as 50%.
The president later said his ire could “dissipate quickly” if Putin “does the right thing,” and once again noted he has “a very good relationship with [Putin].”
However, the Kremlin chief, who reportedly has another call scheduled with Trump this week, has not responded to Trump’s heated comments.
The chief spokesman for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday that Russia will continue to work on “restoring” relations with Washington that he said were “damaged by the Biden administration” following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and noted that Putin remains in “open contact” with Trump.
However, Putin’s lack of public response and the toned-down statements from the Kremlin are all part of Putin’s broader strategy, former DIA intelligence officer and Russia expert, Rebekah Koffler, told Fox News Digital.
“Putin, like Trump, thrives on confrontation,” Koffler said. “Except his approach is different. The Kremlin deliberately is projecting that Putin is cool, calm, and collected now, which he is.
“The fact that President Trump reportedly got mad and used those words means to Putin that he finally got to him, the way he got to Biden, Obama, and others who called him a killer and other derogatory words,” she continued.
“Putin now feels that not only Russia has an upper hand on the battlefield over Ukraine and in terms of total combat potential over NATO, but he also was able to unbalance Trump,” Koffler explained. “That is the whole point – it’s a judo move.”
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