
Putin Exposes Trump's Hypocrisy On Russian Trade, Says US-Russia Trade Rose 20% Under His Administration
Trump recently warned India of a 25 percent tariff for continuing crude oil imports from Russia. But Putin pointed out that despite tensions, economic ties with the US were expanding.
'Under the new US administration, our bilateral trade has increased—so far, a symbolic figure, but still 20 percent higher. There are many areas where Russia and the US can cooperate,' Putin said, highlighting opportunities in energy, digital technologies, space, and Arctic development. He also emphasized the potential for stronger business ties between the Russian Far East and the US West Coast.
Russian news agency TASS reported that the Alaska summit showed Washington understands the benefits of economic cooperation with Moscow.
Meanwhile, Trump appeared to soften his stance on India. Speaking to Fox News aboard Air Force One, he said the US may not impose secondary tariffs on countries like India that continue buying Russian oil.
'Well, Putin lost a client in India, which was importing about 40 percent of the oil. China is buying a lot… If I apply a secondary tariff, it would be devastating for them. If I have to, I'll do it. Maybe I won't have to,' Trump said.
Still, the US has signaled that secondary sanctions on India, including the proposed 25 percent tariff, could take effect as early as August 27.
Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that if Trump's meeting with Putin did not go well, penalties on India could be raised even further.
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Hindustan Times
10 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Putin Returns to Moscow With Air of Triumph After Summit
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn't have scripted his first visit to the U.S. since 2015 much better. The Russian leader strutted along a red carpet at a U.S. air base and posed smiling with President Trump, who had weeks earlier been expressing mounting frustration with him and threatening to hit Russia and its trading partners with sanctions. He met with Trump under a sign that read 'pursuing peace.' When they emerged 3½ hours later, the leaders said they hadn't reached a deal. Instead, Putin used the stage to press his demands on Ukraine. Neither Trump nor Putin, who is facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes, took questions from the U.S. press. Putin, by clinching a long-awaited summit with Trump, scored a win. The Kremlin leader, has staked his legacy on dismantling the post-Cold War world order and resurrecting Russia's great-power status to put it on par with the U.S. 'Putin achieved exactly what he wanted: He simultaneously preserved his relationship with Trump, avoided additional sanctions, and received the blessing to continue his war,' said Andrey Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based political analyst and a columnist at New Times, an independent Russian-language magazine. The summit gave Putin a platform to turn longstanding narratives about the Ukraine war on their head, emphasizing that the U.S. and Russia are neighbors separated at their closest point by just over 2 miles of water. Meanwhile, he has tried to paint Europe and Ukraine as the two biggest obstacles to peace, while stepping up recent attacks on Ukrainian cities. Putin and Trump emerged from talks Friday without having a deal. Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in the days before the summit to understand better their red lines in negotiations with Russia. But the images of the two leaders in Alaska were certainly unsettling on the continent. Trump rolled out a red carpet for Putin on the taxiway of the U.S. air base, applauding as the Kremlin leader approached. After a firm handshake, Trump invited him to ride in his armored limousine to the meeting. 'Putin loves trolling and rubbing Europeans' noses in the fact that there is a strong relationship with Trump,' said Andrew Weiss, who worked on Russian affairs in George H.W. Bush's and Bill Clinton's administrations. Hours after arriving back in Moscow, Putin gathered his top officials inside the Kremlin to tell them the summit had been a resounding success. 'We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time,' he said to an array of officials, including the defense minister, the chief of staff and intelligence chiefs. 'I repeat once again: We had the opportunity to calmly and in detail once again explain our position.' To be sure, Trump said in the days before the summit that he didn't expect any major breakthroughs and said he hoped he could clinch a cease-fire and lay the foundation for a lasting peace process. But in the hours after the summit, previous calls for an immediate cease-fire evaporated. Meanwhile, Trump's own language mirrored that of the Russian side, calling in a post on Truth Social for an overarching peace agreement as opposed to a halt to fighting first. That effectively gives Putin the green light to continue the fighting to capture more land in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops are making gains. 'Tonight, the president of our great country showed Trump, the president of another great country, that Russia is a party to be reckoned with,' said Alexander Dugin, a far-right politician and a pro-Putin ideologue. 'Therefore, we cannot be forced to do things that anyone wants, be it the West or Trump.' Putin, who has called the fall of the Soviet Union a geopolitical catastrophe, has been working to resurrect slowly Moscow's sphere of influence in parts of the territory that once encompassed the Soviet Union. Ukraine occupies a special place in Russian history. It is where the founding dynasty of the Russian Empire was formed. He is unlikely to sacrifice his ambition to reclaim Ukraine as a part of Russia to improve relations with Washington. But it would be a coup for the Russian leader if he could accomplish both after years of Western isolation sparked by his invasion. 'Both sides want normalization, which has a very strong business aspect that could unlock some money flows for both countries,' said Elina Ribakova, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Putin seemed to signal as much on Friday when he signed a decree that could offer Exxon Mobil re-entry into the Russian market through a stake in the potentially lucrative Sakhalin-1 oil field, which it pulled out of after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Whether the takeaways from the summit can translate into a sustainable peace process is hard to determine. In a call from Air Force One on his way home from the summit, Trump relayed to the Europeans the outcome of the meeting and that Putin wanted to keep fighting, according to European officials. Trump plans to meet Monday with Zelensky, who wasn't invited to Friday's summit. Analysts said expectations are low that a road to peace can be found in a war that Russia is slowly winning. 'The bubble of inflated expectations has burst, and the process itself has turned into 'Waiting for Godot,'' said Kolesnikov, referring to a play about endless waiting. Write to Thomas Grove at


NDTV
20 minutes ago
- NDTV
US Suspends Visas For Gazans Seeking Medical Aid After Far-Right Campaign
The US government said Saturday it is suspending visitor visas for Gazans after a far-right influencer with the ear of President Donald Trump complained that wounded Palestinians had been allowed to seek medical treatment in the United States. The announcement came one day after a series of furious social media posts by Laura Loomer, who is known for promoting racist conspiracy theories and claiming that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job. "All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days," the State Department, which is led by Marco Rubio, wrote on X. In a series of posts on X Friday, Loomer called on the State Department to stop giving visas to Palestinians from Gaza who she said were "pro-HAMAS... affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and funded by Qatar," without providing evidence. Loomer's target was the US-based charity HEAL Palestine, which said last week it had helped 11 critically wounded Gazan children -- as well as their caregivers and siblings -- arrive safely in the US for medical treatment. It was "the largest single medical evacuation of injured children from Gaza to the US," the charity said on its website. 'Dangerous and inhumane' "Truly unacceptable," Loomer wrote in another X post. "Someone needs to be fired at @StateDept when @marcorubio figures out who approved the visas." "Qatar transported these GAZANS into the US via @qatarairways," she said. Qatar is "literally flooding our country with jihadis," she added. Loomer said she had spoken to the staff of Republican Tom Cotton, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, adding that they were "also looking into how these GAZANS got visas to come into the US." Republican Congressman Randy Fine explicitly commended Loomer after the visa change was announced, in a sign of her sway over some US policy. "Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura," Fine wrote on X. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund, a US-based charity, called on the Trump administration to "reverse this dangerous and inhumane decision." Over the last 30 years the charity has evacuated thousands of Palestinian children to the US for medical care, it said a statement. "Medical evacuations are a lifeline for the children of Gaza who would otherwise face unimaginable suffering or death due to the collapse of medical infrastructure in Gaza." Though Loomer holds no official position, she wields significant power, and is reported to have successfully pushed for the dismissal of several senior US security officials she deemed disloyal to Trump. In July, Loomer took aim at a job offer made to a highly qualified Biden-era official for a prestigious position at the West Point military academy. The Pentagon rescinded the offer one day later. Trump also fired the head of the highly sensitive National Security Agency, Timothy Haugh, and his deputy Wendy Noble in April at the apparent urging of Loomer, after she met with the president at the White House. "No other content creator or journalist has gotten as many Biden holdovers fired from the Trump admin!" Loomer posted on X Saturday.


United News of India
37 minutes ago
- United News of India
Nordic-Baltic Eight nations say no decision can be made for Ukraine and Europe without their involvement
Oslo, Aug 16 (UNI) The Baltic-Nordic belt of Europe or the 'Nordic-Baltic Eight' reaffirmed their full support for Ukraine post the US-Russia summit in Alaska, and in a joint statement said 'no decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine, and no decisions on Europe without Europe". The NB-8 – comprising Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – though welcoming of President Donald Trump's attempts at discussing peace with President Vladmir Putin, were skeptical over the Russian leader's comments. 'Experience has shown that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin cannot be trusted,' the statement read, adding 'Ultimately it is Russia's responsibility to end its blatant violations of international law. Russia's aggression and imperialist ambitions are the root causes of this war.' The eight countries also welcomed US' security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe, saying that 'no limitations should be placed on Ukraine's armed forces or on its cooperation with other countries' and that 'Russia has no veto over Ukraine's pathway to the EU and NATO.' They reiterated their support for Kyiv and pledged to continue Europe's militarisation to stave off any potential Russian military venture, warning they will keep strengthening sanctions and economic measures 'as long as Russia continues its killing.'