by John Hayward, Breitbart:
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “immediately” to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.
Putin responded on Friday that the Ukraine war might have been avoided if the 2020 U.S. presidential election had not been “stolen” from Trump.
“From what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we’ll leave as soon as we can. I’d meet immediately,” Trump said from the White House on Thursday after delivering a feisty video address to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
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“Everyday we don’t meet, soldiers are being killed on the battlefield,” he said.
In his speech to the WEF, Trump called on the Saudi-led OPEC cartel to reduce the cost of oil, cutting off Russia’s income so it could no longer afford to continue the war.
“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” he predicted.
“They should have done it long ago. They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what’s taking place. Millions of lives are being lost,” he said.
Trump used his preferred social media platform, Truth Social, later on Thursday to urge Putin to “stop this ridiculous war.”
“IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump wrote, making liberal use of capital letters for emphasis, as is his custom.
“Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL,’” he added.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin is ready for a telephone conference with Trump.
“Putin is ready. We are waiting for signals. Everyone is ready. It is difficult to read the coffee grounds here. As soon as there is something, if there is something, we will inform you,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. This was not a malapropism about reading tea leaves. Reading coffee grounds to predict the future is an art form in Turkey.
Peskov said Russia is prepared to discuss arms control with Trump, in addition to the war in Ukraine, and would like to cooperate with the new American administration on denuclearization. Russia withdrew from its last arms control agreement with the United States, the New START Treaty, in 2023.
