Vladimir Putin emphasized that the US and its partners must realize that the colonial era is over and such tactics will not work while dealing with “partners” in the today’s geopolitics.
Trump Tariffs: Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a veiled attack on his US counterpart Donald Trump for trying to pressure the leaders of “powerful economies” like India and China using ‘colonial-era’ tactics, stating that these countries have their own domestic political mechanism and laws, and the leaders cannot show any sign of weakness as it would doom their political careers.
What did Vladimir Putin say?
“You have countries like India, with almost 1.5 billion people, China, with powerful economies, but they also have their own domestic political mechanisms and laws. So when somebody tells you that they’re going to punish you, you have to think how can the leadership of those countries, of those big countries, which had difficult periods in their history too, that had to do with colonialism, with attacks on their sovereignty during prolonged periods of time, you have to understand that if one of them shows weakness, his political career will be over, so that influences his behavior,” Putin told the media following his four-day visit to China on Wednesday (local time).
The Russian President also emphasized that the US and its partners must realize that the colonial era is over and such tactics will not work while dealing with “partners” in the today’s geopolitics. “The colonial era is over. They have to realise they cannot use this term when speaking with their partners,” he said.
‘Russia-Ukraine war mere pretext’
Putin also sharply criticised Europe’s plans for imposing sanctions on Moscow’s economic partners, particularly India and China, stating that such punitive measures reflect an outdated colonial mindset, and said the Russia-Ukraine war was a mere “pretext” by Western powers to take these broader punitive measures against countries maintaining strong economic ties with Russia.
Further, the Russian leader dismissed the relevance of the Russia-Ukraine war to recent trade actions, accusing the US-led West of exploiting the narrative to justify trade restrictions and tariffs that, in reality, serve unrelated political or economic agendas.
“Well, surprisingly enough, we almost didn’t mention this in our conversations because it’s not really something that concerns us. Because the Ukraine situation is only a pretext to take various steps against countries that have economic ties with us,” he stated.
Trade imbalance real reason for tariffs?
Putin argued that the real reason behind many of these sanctions lies in growing economic imbalances between the West, particularly the United States, and other major economies like India, China, and Brazil.
“There is a trade disproportion between the United States and India or with China, but there is no situation between Brazil and the United States, for example. And, by the way, Brazil faced additional tariffs on the 6th of August, even though the deadline was the 8th of August. So what does Ukraine have to do with this? Nothing. It’s only about domestic politics… Ukraine doesn’t have anything to do with that. So, of course, there is some imbalance in trade, but I believe that those should be addressed through negotiations,” the Russian President added.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Vladimir Putin chastised Donald Trump for using colonial-era tactics to pressure India and China.
- The Russian President said the West was using Russia-Ukraine war as a pretext to impose sanctions and tariffs.
- Putin said the real reason behind Trump tariffs and proposed European sanctions was trade imbalance.
- The Russian leader emphasized that the colonial era was over, and the West needs to realize this.
Vladimir Putin’s remarks come amid US President Donald Trump slapping punitive tariffs on India for buying Russian oil.
In August, Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional 25 percent tariffs on Indian goods, raising the total levy to 50%. The US President called the additional tariffs on India as a “punishment” for purchasing Russian oil and weapons, as he accused New Delhi of “funding” Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Trump’s additional 25% tariffs on India came into effect on August 27.
(With inputs from agencies)
