Russia dismisses 'theatrical' Trump for sanctions threat, markets unmoved

Russia has dismissed Donald Trump’s latest threat as pure showmanship. On Tuesday, a senior Russian security official told reporters that Moscow doesn’t care about the U.S. president’s plan to punish countries buying Russian exports with 100% tariffs, calling it a “theatrical ultimatum.”

This threat was tied to Trump’s demand for a peace agreement in Ukraine, something Russia clearly has no intention of accepting under pressure. Sitting in the Oval Office on Monday next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said the U.S. would deliver new weapons to Ukraine.

Then he warned of aggressive tariffs targeting any country that continues buying Russian goods, especially crude oil. Oil is one of Russia’s biggest exports. But Trump didn’t stop there. He took a swipe at Vladimir Putin, saying, “I don’t want to call him an assassin, but he’s a tough guy.” That’s a clear callback to Joe Biden’s 2021 “killer” comment about the Russian president.

Medvedev mocks Trump’s “ultimatum”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responded online, posting on X: “Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”

Matt Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, confirmed the plan amounts to secondary sanctions. These would hit countries like India and China, two of the biggest importers of Russian oil since the Ukraine war began in 2022.

“It’s about tariffs on countries like India and China that are buying their oil,” Whitaker told reporters. But markets barely reacted. Oil prices didn’t swing, and traders didn’t panic. People are used to Trump’s tariff threats by now, and most just wait to see what actually sticks.

Trade analysts weren’t buying it either. Deborah Elms, who runs trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, said the whole thing sounds messy. “It remains unclear how exactly you would do this, and how China or anyone would certify that they’re meeting the U.S. requirement.” She added that it’ll only make these countries trust Trump less in future negotiations.

India and China face pressure

This latest threat comes at a delicate time for Trump’s talks with Asia. The U.S. is still trying to finalize a new deal with India. That deal includes 20% reciprocal tariffs, which India is now reviewing before a possible agreement this fall.

But Modi’s government is getting more frustrated with Washington. They’ve already started pushing back harder against Trump’s demands, signaling that relations aren’t exactly cozy right now.

With China, things look slightly better… for now. After months of tension, the U.S. and China reached a trade truce in May. That helped cool things off a bit. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio even said Trump and Xi Jinping might meet later this year.

There’s also been movement on tech exports. On Monday, Nvidia confirmed it can now resume selling its H20 AI chips to China. That’s huge. Those chips are used in AI tools and rely on rare-earth minerals, which the U.S. needs from China. So the chip approval looks like Washington is trying to play nice again, at least for now.

But Beijing isn’t exactly relaxed. Zhu Feng, a top foreign policy dean at Nanjing University, said this new tariff threat will “bring more chaos” and promised a strong response if it moves forward. For China, anything that threatens energy security is a red line. The country’s crude imports from Russia have only gone up since the war started. And any attempt by the U.S. to cut that off is going to spark major pushback.

William Yang, a Northeast Asia analyst at the International Crisis Group, said: “Any major threat to China’s energy security could create new frictions in the fragile trade truce between the world’s top two economies.”

India’s position isn’t much different. They rely on cheap Russian oil, and any move by Trump that makes it harder for them to access it will only strain ties further.

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