Russia characterized talks with Trump envoy Steven Witkoff earlier today as “constructive.” Perhaps Dmitri Peskov has a different definition of that word.
Vladimir Putin wanted to peel Donald Trump away from Ukraine and normalize relations with the US. That effort picked up steam after Trump declared that he would park nuclear submarines near Russia after Dmitry Medvedev suggested that sanctions would be treated as an act of war. Witkoff arrived yesterday, and official Russian channels went out of their way to characterize the meeting in positive terms:
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, days before the White House’s deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or potentially face severe economic penalties that could also hit countries buying its oil.
The meeting between Putin and Witkoff lasted about three hours. Neither side gave an immediate readout of the talks.
Earlier, Witkoff took an early morning stroll through Zaryadye Park, a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, with Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president’s envoy for investment and economic cooperation, footage aired by TASS showed. Dmitriev said later on social platform X that “dialogue will prevail.” …
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday welcomed Witkoff’s visit. “We consider (talks with Witkoff) important, substantive and very useful,” he said.
Just how “useful” were the talks for Russia? As Witkoff toured the Kremlin, Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s key trading partner over its energy exports:
President Donald Trump is hitting India with an additional 25% tariff over its imports of Russian oil, the White House said on Wednesday.
“I find that the Government of India is currently directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil,” Trump said in an executive order.
“Accordingly, and as consistent with applicable law, articles of India imported into the customs territory of the United States shall be subject to an additional ad valorem rate of duty of 25 percent,” the order stated.
That escalates tariffs that Trump had already applied before the negotiations over the war in Ukraine boiled over. Trump had applied a broad 25% tariff on most exports from India as a bargaining maneuver to get a better trade deal. This makes it clear that Trump is now less interested in cutting that deal than with punishing Russia for continuing the war in Ukraine, a message that Narendra Modi refused to hear last week even after Trump made clear he was ready to act:
Trump earlier this week threatened India with the new tariffs, saying they were helping Russia wage war in Ukraine.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the oil purchased, selling it on the open market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,” he wrote on social media.
It probably didn’t help either India or Russia that the “Russian War Machine” greeted Witkoff’s arrival with yet another massive aerial attack on Ukrainian civilian areas. That came after Russia had hinted they might forego such attacks, too:
Russian officials have suggested that a concession from Moscow might involve a pause in aerial attacks against Ukraine, which have been a particular target of Trump’s indignation. Russia has sent regular waves of drones and missiles to attack Ukrainian cities. Twenty-eight people were killed in an attack in Kyiv last week. Moscow insists it only aims at military targets. Kyiv has responded with its own attacks inside Russia.
Hours before the high-level meetings took place in Moscow on Wednesday, Russia launched another attack on Ukraine, according to Kyiv. Authorities in southern Ukraine said that two people were killed and a dozen wounded after a Russian glide bomb struck a holiday resort in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said medics and first responders were working to help the wounded in Zaporizhzhia, and called for more pressure on Moscow to end the war. “There is zero military sense in this strike,” he said in a post on X. “Just cruelty aimed at instilling fear.”
That is exactly what Modi is funding with his country’s importation of Russian energy. China may not care one way or the other, but India has its own vulnerabilities, not the least of which is its ongoing hostilities with Pakistan and massive poverty within its own population. Unlike China’s leadership, Modi is accountable to voters, and losing effective access to American markets will be a very big problem in a short period of time for Modi and his party. Russia can’t possibly put even a small dent in the losses that high tariffs will create for India, which desperately needs to export both goods and services to the US for any hope of economic growth.
The ball is in Modi’s court. Perhaps he’ll choose to have a long talk with his energy supplier about engaging in serious talks to end the war in Ukraine. Or maybe Modi will just cut off his nose to spite his face and try to stick with Russia on the way to political oblivion. Trump has now made it clear that those are Modi’s choices, and he’s making it equally clear that Putin doesn’t intimidate him either. Call it a moment of clarity for both.
Update: Maybe the message did get through after all:
Don’t count chickens before eggs hatch, and all that, but one has to suspect that both Putin and Modi now realize that Trump means business, and has no problem using business to impose a Pax Americana where he can.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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