Putin’s Big Claim On Ukraine Crisis: ‘If Victory Wasn’t Stolen From Trump In 2020…’
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said that he was ready to talk to his US counterpart Donald Trump on the Ukraine war, fuelling speculations of possible contact between the two world leaders soon.
“As for the issue of negotiations… we have always said, and I want to emphasise this once again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” Putin told Russian state TV. His remarks came after Trump, after taking over the presidency on January 20, threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and tariffs if it did not negotiate an end to the nearly three-year-long war in Ukraine.
“If they don’t settle this war soon, like almost immediately, I’m going to put massive tariffs on Russia, and massive taxes, and also big sanctions,” Trump had said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday. Responding to this, Putin said that he did not expect Trump to make decisions on sanctions that would rebound on the US economy.
“Therefore, most likely, it would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly on all those areas that are of interest to both the United States and Russia. We are ready,” Putin said.
Putin On US Poll Outcome In 2020
Putin also claimed that the Ukraine crisis in 2022 might not have happened if Trump had been the US President at the time. “I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president — if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020 — then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 presidential polls in the US, in which he faced defeat at the hands of Joe Biden, were “stolen” and “rigged”. In the run-up to the 2024 elections, Trump boasted that he would bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end in a single day under his presidency in the second term.
Putin Praises Trump
Putin heaped praise on Trump, describing him as “pragmatic” and “smart”. He, however, said that he did not believe Trump would force global oil prices lower in an attempt to damage Moscow.
“He is not only a smart person, but a pragmatic person. The oil prices were either too high or too low that were bad for both the Russian and American economies. I have a hard time imagining there will be decisions taken that are detrimental to the American economy,” the Russian President said.
Putin’s remarks came after Trump said during an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower oil prices. “If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” he had claimed.