U.S. President Donald Trump is most likely not going to impose sanctions against Russia. The official reason is that some European countries will not meet his main demands, writes The New York Times.
On Saturday, President Trump set conditions for imposing new sanctions against Russia, stating that he would do so only if all NATO member countries did the same, and also stopped purchasing Russian oil and imposed high tariffs on Chinese goods.
«I am ready to impose serious sanctions against Russia when all NATO countries agree and start doing the same, and when all NATO countries stop buying oil from Russia, — Trump wrote in his social network Truth Social. He also called on countries to collectively impose tariffs on goods from China ranging from 50 to 100 percent. Without this, according to him, NATO countries are «wasting» the United States' time.
Meanwhile, the publication notes that at least two NATO member countries — Hungary and Turkey — remain on good terms with Moscow and continue to purchase energy resources from Russia. It is unlikely that countries will have any changes regarding this issue in the near future.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to take action against Russia, but left himself the option to back out, writes NYT.
His decision was not influenced by the fact that Russia is testing NATO's defense in new ways. Early Wednesday morning, Russian drones were shot down by Polish and NATO troops after they penetrated deep into Polish airspace, causing alarm among European leaders. Nevertheless, Trump portrayed NATO as an organization that is not doing enough to counter Russia's actions. Meanwhile, ten days ago, the Pentagon confirmed that it plans to end the program of training and assisting NATO troops in the Baltics, right on the border with Russia.