Russia does not care about Trump’s theatrics, official says

Russian officials were outspoken in dismissing United States President Donald Trump and his recent threat of tougher sanctions unless there is a peace deal in 50 days.

The Kremlin on Tuesday reacted icily to United States President Donald Trump’s warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, saying that recent decisions by the U.S. president and the NATO military alliance would be interpreted by Kyiv as a signal to continue the war.

Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, on July 14, announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened “biting” secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in 50 days.

“The U.S. president’s statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington.”

Peskov, though, added that it was already clear that decisions being made in Washington and other NATO capitals were “perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace but as a signal to continue the war.”

Putin, who has spoken to Trump by telephone at least six times this year, has yet to comment publicly on Trump’s remarks.

But two other senior Russian officials did not hold back.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, said Moscow did not care about Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum,” while a senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, suggested that giving ultimatums to Moscow was unacceptable and pointless.