President Trump is assembly with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska. Like everybody, I hope the assembly goes properly and Putin agrees to a cease-fire as step one towards a peace deal that can finish the Russia-Ukraine battle.
If Vladimir Putin misbehaves, President Donald Trump can utterly flip off his financial and financial spigot.
If anyone can negotiate an finish to the battle, Mr. Trump can. As I’ve mentioned, Trump involves this assembly with the wind at his again. He is had outstanding, profitable home coverage achievements at house and overseas. Internationally, he obliterated Iran. And his extraordinary success in reordering world commerce has made him the perfect recognized, strongest, and hottest particular person on the planet. However I doubt that Vladimir Putin sees him this manner.
The ex-KGB agent is a megalomaniac who needs to increase what he believes is the historic Russian empire. He would not a lot care that he is been murdering civilian males, ladies, and youngsters. Or their houses. Or their hospitals. He would not a lot care that no less than 300,000people have died on this battle. He is bringing in mercenary troops from North Korea, China, and different communist despotic nations to wage this insane battle. He thought he may simply invade Ukraine and seize Kyiv in a few months, take management of all of the land, however seems he miscalculated badly. He has little interest in all this misplaced blood or treasure.
I say this to not state the plain, however to underscore my private view that Putin is totally untrustworthy and can do something to distract from an actual cease-fire or everlasting peace deal. I sincerely hope I am improper. I assist what President Trump is making an attempt to do. Trump is the peacemaker. Putin is the battle legal.
All that mentioned, President Trump spoke on the airplane to Alaska concerning the penalties if Putin misbehaves like he all the time does and mentioned there can be “extreme” financial penalties if they do not agree to finish the battle.
If Putin does misbehave, President Trump has an arsenal of commerce and monetary weapons that can choke off and completely damage what’s left of the Russian economic system. It is a one-horse economic system primarily based on oil and fuel. So, Mr. Trump can first considerably hike tariffs on anyone who purchases Russian oil or different Russian items.
He is already punished India for getting Russian oil, by slapping a 25% tariff on Indian gross sales to the U.S. — on high of the sooner 25% tariff. You would increase that to a 100% tariff. China is a giant purchaser of Russian oil and items. They shouldn’t be proof against a serious tariff hike. In different phrases, you wanna do enterprise with Russia, then you’ll be able to’t do enterprise with the U.S.
After which there are secondary sanctions. Identical thought: you purchase Russian oil or different commodities, you can not do any enterprise with the USA. In different phrases, we’re saying not solely are we sanctioning your online business with Russia, however the secondary sanction can also be any enterprise with the U.S. And financially, we are able to implement this. We are able to implement this by blowing Russia utterly out of the greenback funds system.
First there’s the Swift cost messaging ledger. All greenback funds, together with all of the worldwide banks, should be recorded. So, we’ll know instantly who’s serving to Russia. Then we are able to stop the transaction; the precise cost. We do this via the Federal Reserve wire, which is the precise cost system, the precise switch of the cash.
If U.S. or overseas banks need to sneak via a Russia-related cost, they may very well be denied entry to the Fed wire — which shuts down the entire transaction.
The Swift system and the fed wire are in fact dollar-based. However over 90% of world buying and selling transactions are dollar-based, both immediately or not directly. Consider China, India, however a method or one other they’ll pay via the greenback.
So, President Trump can mainly flip Russia’s financial and monetary water off. He can shut the Russian spigot.
Does Putin know this? Properly, I do not know. However he’ll shortly discover out if he would not make a cope with President Trump.
