Trump hopes that after his meeting with Putin peace agreement to be made, but does not rule out imposition of sanctions
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an exclusive interview with Fox News on Friday that he will probably schedule a meeting with Putin, after which a peace agreement will be concluded. However, if the talks in Turkey do not yield results, Trump did not rule out the application of sanctions.
Responding to a question from host Bret Baier about Putin not being at the negotiating table, Trump said that Putin is "at the [negotiating] table."
"And he wanted this meeting. But I always felt that there couldn't be a meeting without me. There's a lot of hatred on both sides. I have a very good relationship with Putin. I think we'll make a deal. We have to get together. And I think we'll probably schedule it because I'm tired of other people going and meeting and everything like that. Steve Witkoff has done an incredible job. But it's a very tough job. And it's a job that, because of position, I think I'm the only one who is going to able to do it. And I think we'll do it fast. I think Putin is tired of these all things," Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
In response to the host's mention of Senator Lindsey Graham's bill, which would impose tough sanctions on buyers of Russian oil, Trump said he had successfully used this leverage in the cases of Venezuela and Iran.
"I just put it on Venezuela. It's called secondary sanctions. And I just did it with Venezuela... I just did it with Iran. Basically, if you buy oil from Iran, you can't do business with the United States. And you see ships just leaving that port. You know, Venezuela was amazing," Trump said.
Asked by a Fox News host why not do it with Russia, Trump said he would see what happens in the talks in Turkey.
"And we'll see what happens. It would be crashing for Russia, because they're having a hard time with their economy. Oil prices are low, you know," Trump said. He also criticized his predecessor, who, according to Trump, allowed oil prices to go from $65 to $100 a barrel.
"Putin was making a fortune. Now my oil is down, so nobody is making a fortune anymore. And it's going to go down further," Trump told Fox News.