Fred Fleitz, former Trump National Security Council chief of staff, told Newsmax that Russian leaders, especially President Vladimir Putin, are worried about new threatened economic sanctions being imposed by President Donald Trump.
Fleitz told “Carl Higbie FRONTLINE” on Tuesday, “I think the Russians are very worried about these sanctions. Their economy’s in trouble, and Trump is obviously very serious about them.”
The so-called secondary sanctions threatened by Trump involve economic fees being charged against nations that buy energy and products from Russia. One of the largest buyers from Russia is India. It would be a new level of pressure to force Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.
Fleitz said Trump is willing to create a potential international situation by imposing a new round of sanctions. “He’s even going to damage our relations with India, to force India to stop buying Russian oil.”
A relatively new line of thought in the situation, said Fleitz, is that he is hearing what Putin may be most worried about. “What I thought was very interesting is that in the same reports where Putin is disputing whether these sanctions will have an effect, sources in the Kremlin are saying Putin does not want to anger Trump over this.”
He said that it is an indicator of the leverage Trump has. “Now, I don’t remember Putin worried about angering Biden when Biden was in office. This gives me hope that we can keep talking,” he said referring to former President Joe Biden.
But he added that someone has to open up an endgame for Russia. “There may be a route to a solution. Maybe not in the immediate future. But I think Trump’s going to keep pushing ahead and maybe these sanctions will make the difference.”
Fleitz said if a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is structured to look like Putin gets some kind of win, that will make things more politically acceptable to Putin and could be enough to win his acceptance.
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