Moscow, July 15: Russian Security Council’s Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday dismissed US President Donald Trump’s threats to impose massive economic sanctions on the country, calling it a “theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin” and asserting that Moscow does not care.
“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care,” Medvedev posted on X. This is Moscow’s first official reaction after Trump threatened on Monday to impose a secondary 100 per cent tariff on countries that import oil, gas and uranium from Russia, saying he was “very unhappy” with Moscow’s intransigence in finding an end to the war with Ukraine.
He gave a 50-day deadline for the punitive tariff to take effect if Russia did not make a peace deal with Ukraine, while speaking to reporters with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House.
“We’re very, very unhappy with them, and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs. If we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent, you’d call them secondary tariffs,” he said.
Following the announcement, US Permanent Representative to NATO Matthew Whitaker stated that President Trump’s statements on supplying arms to Ukraine and the introduction of additional anti-Russian restrictions are likely to trigger a response from Russia, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Obviously, he’s going to react to not only the United States weapons being readily available to the Ukrainians at Europe’s expense. He’s also going to respond, obviously, to this tariff,” said Whitaker, speaking to American news outlet Fox News, citing that China and India, as the key purchasers of Russian oil, will be affected by the tariffs, among other nations. Trump also said he would impose “very severe tariffs” on Russia.
Expressing his anger at Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, he said, “My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night.” “I felt we had a deal about four times″ between Russia and Ukraine, “but it just kept going on and on”, said Trump, who tried to broker a deal. He also announced that the US will send Patriot missiles and other arms to Ukraine.
IANS