India can act relieved and keep importing Russian energy, and even process some of the crude to export back to Russia, while Mr Zelenskyy defies Mr Trump’s selfish idea of a unilateral declaration of an energy ceasefire that the combatants had not been consulted about
Granting a 60-day waiver from sanctions on Russia and proposed 100 per cent tariffs on five countries including India, US President Donald Trump will be hoping the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, will organise millions of tonnes of diesel to help bring down quickly the “gas” prices at American petrol pumps. But in doing so he will be feeding billions of dollars into the Russian war machine while throwing Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine under the bus.
One authoritarian President’s largesse in supporting the economy of another warmonger must rank as the worst strategic decision of the decade as European unity is undermined and the gate is wide open for Mr Putin to attack energy sites and such civilian infra targets inside Ukraine in a war that he has been unable to make any progress in after ingress into the Donbas region in February 2022.
India can act relieved and keep importing Russian energy, and even process some of the crude to export back to Russia, while Mr Zelenskyy defies Mr Trump’s selfish idea of a unilateral declaration of an energy ceasefire that the combatants had not been consulted about. If the world situation were not so dire because of the Iran war that Mr Trump began waging at Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s behest, India might even smile at the turn of events that allows it to keep sourcing its oil at reasonable prices from Russia and elsewhere, including possibly Venezuela.
The principles, which bound the West together in a common cause against the “Soviet” threat during the Cold War, have been given short shrift by a US President who has sacrificed the honour code at the altar of personal and party convenience. Doing so at a perilous time is worse as Mr Putin has been fulminating against European powers thus adding to the prevailing uncertainty caused by the two wars in Europe and West Asia.
Mr Trump may have reason to worry over the results of the midterms, the forecasts for which are projecting the loss of control of the Senate and the House for Republicans. He risks casting away all the values that bound the free world together just for giving Russia a free pass to come back to the mainstream, all in the hope that its President will respond positively to trading avenues being opened again.
