The Eagle Stays In Staring Contest With The Bear

Given the postures Trump and Putin struck this week, a thaw in US-Russia relations is unlikely anytime soon. Trump is not intent on jettisoning US claims to global hegemony

- M K BHADRAKUMAR

The new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said Ukraine would be a "top priority" for President Donald Trump and that efforts to reach a cease-fire would begin straight away. Some of the groundwork has "already been laid," Rubio claimed, and insisted that both Ukraine and Russia would have to concede "something" as part of any deal.

However, Trump upstaged Rubio in real time to assume a threatening stance when he told a news conference he would be talking to Putin "very soon" and it "sounds likely" that he would apply more sanctions if the latter did not come to the table.

Trump followed through on the threat in a Truth Social post: "I'm going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big favor. Settle now, and stop this ridiculous war! It's only going to get worse. If we don't make a deal, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the US, and various other participating countries. Let's get this war, which never would have started if I were president, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way—and the easy way is always better. It's time to make a deal."

Trump is falling into the same trap that Team Biden did—predicating the war on the deeply flawed assumption that the Russian economy is the weak link in Moscow's strategy, or worse still, Russia's war economy is a house of cards and time is not on Putin's side.

Quintessentially, it's a carry-over from the Soviet era—performative and intended to undermine confidence in its political intent. It won't unnerve Putin. Just recall how effectively his power apparatus dealt with the shock of the 2008 financial crisis.