With sanctions looming, Trump's envoy to Russia meets with Putin

Boston Globe

17 hours ago

But a few hours after the meeting's end, Trump announced that he would increase his tariffs on India to 50 percent, describing the move as a penalty for purchasing Russian oil. Trump also ordered his administration to determine whether other countries are importing Russian oil and recommend whether they should face similar tariffs.
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Trump said Tuesday that, depending on the results of Witkoff's meeting, the United States could impose new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its fossil fuels.
A White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting, said Trump's timetable was unchanged and that the secondary sanctions he has threatened were still expected to be implemented Friday.
Ushakov said Witkoff had passed along 'signals' from Trump and that Putin had conveyed 'some signals' back. He added that he would offer more details once Witkoff had briefed Trump.
Trump wrote in his post on social media that he had shared an update of Witkoff's meeting with several European allies, and said that 'everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.'
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Previous meetings between Witkoff and Putin drew praise from the Kremlin without leading to any breakthroughs in stopping the Ukraine war, which Trump describes as his primary goal in diplomacy with Russia.
But Witkoff's visit Wednesday held particular weight because it came just days before a deadline imposed by Trump for Putin to make peace.
Brief video footage released by the Kremlin from the meeting's start showed a smiling Putin greeting Witkoff with a warm handshake as Ushakov looked on from behind an oval conference table.
Earlier Wednesday, Witkoff was met at Moscow's Vnukovo airport by Kirill Dmitriev, an economic aide to Putin who has been his main counterpart at the Kremlin. Russian state television then showed Dmitriev and Witkoff taking a walk in the morning sun in Zaryadye, a landscaped park just outside the Kremlin walls, before Witkoff headed into the Kremlin for his meeting with the Russian president.
During his recent visits to Russia, Witkoff, a longtime personal friend of Trump who now holds the title of special envoy for peace missions, has held hourslong talks with Putin himself. That has given him extraordinary access to a Russian leader who has met with few Western officials since he invaded Ukraine, and who rarely grants audiences to foreigners who are not heads of state.
Those meetings helped facilitate prisoner exchanges that freed two Americans jailed in Russia, and helped pave the way for phone calls between Putin and Trump. But none brought clear signs of progress in ending the war in Ukraine.
While Trump initially appeared to give Putin the benefit of the doubt and blamed President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for dragging out the three-year war, he has increasingly soured on Putin in his public comments lately. Putin, on the other hand, has sought to placate and engage with Trump without showing any willingness to compromise on his far-reaching goals in his war against Ukraine.
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Trump said on July 28 that he would give Moscow 10 to 12 days to end the conflict or face a new round of financial penalties — a deadline that expires soon.
Asked Tuesday whether he was still considering sanctioning countries like China that buy Russian energy, Trump said the United States would 'be doing quite a bit of that,' but suggested that Witkoff's visit would determine the next steps.
Putin's forces have been advancing on the ground and have pummeled Ukraine with some of their fiercest airstrikes of the war in recent months, even as Trump has tried to negotiate peace. The United Nations said that June saw the most civilian casualties in a single month over the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured, and that preliminary data showed that 'this alarming pattern' continued in July.
Overnight, Russia again hit Ukraine with drone strikes. A summer holiday resort in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine was targeted, killing two people and injuring 12, including children, Ukrainian officials said.
Zelensky said he discussed the details of Wednesday's call with Trump and European leaders in a separate conversation. He didn't release any of those details, but said, 'Our joint position with our partners is absolutely clear — the war must end.'
Energy exports are the main source of revenue for the Russian government, though those earnings have declined as the price of Russian oil has fallen. The Russian government collected about $9.8 billion in oil and gas taxes in July, Russia's Finance Ministry said Tuesday, a 27 percent drop from a year earlier when measured in Russian currency.
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