Trump’s Threat of Tariffs and Sanctions on Russia over Ukraine May Fall Flat

AP

17:47 JST, January 23, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to impose stiff taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Russia if an agreement isn’t reached to end the war in Ukraine, a warning that is likely fall on deaf ears in the Kremlin. The United States already prohibits the import of virtually all Russian products, and Russia has faced a multitude of U.S. and European sanctions since the invasion began almost three years ago.

In a post to his Truth Social site on Wednesday, Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war.”

He said he had no desire to hurt Russia — which he noted had played a major role in securing victory for the Allies against Nazi Germany in World War II — and has a good relationship with Putin, but warned of the penalties if the war isn’t stopped soon.

“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 United States, and various other participating countries.”

Trump has been skeptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine in weapons and other materiel to defend itself. He has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. That has not happened.

The problem with the threat is that other than a small amount of fertilizer, animal feed, inorganic material like tin, and machinery, Russia currently exports very little to the U.S. that could be subject to tariffs. Oil had been Russia’s largest export to the U.S., but such trade was zeroed out in 2023.

The U.S. imported a total of $2.8 billion worth of these products from Russia in 2024, a tiny fraction of U.S. imports and a precipitous drop from 2023, when it was $4.5 billion, and 2022, when it was $14.4 billion, according to U.S. government statistics.

And, Russia is already one of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations. Many of those sanctions relate to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and were imposed under President Joe Biden, but others predate Biden. Some were imposed during Trump’s first term in office, and some date back to Russia’s 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

In addition, “other participating countries” such as Iran and North Korea, the two most often accused of helping Russia in the Ukraine war, are subject to even more U.S. sanctions.