SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
It's been quite a week in President Trump's quest to negotiate an end to Russia's war in Ukraine. First, Trump openly toyed with the idea of providing long-range weapons to Ukraine. Then he announced he would instead hold another summit meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Soon, however, the meeting was canceled with Trump announcing sanctions on Russia. NPR's Moscow correspondent Charles Maynes is closely following these zigs and zags, and he joins us from the Russian capital. Hi, Charles.
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: Hi, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: These sanctions are not new. There have been a lot of them levied against Russia. During the war in Ukraine, even before then, why did these sanctions stand out?
MAYNES: Well, you know, these sanctions target two of Russia's top oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which jointly make up nearly half of Russian oil exports, and that's significant not only because these companies contribute a large amount to Russia's federal budget, which finances the war, but also because it marks the first time President Trump has followed through on threats to make Russia pay a price for its war in Ukraine since returning to office. So this is a real kick in the teeth for Russia, assuming Trump follows through. These sanctions don't kick in until the end of next month.
PFEIFFER: And why these sanctions now?
MAYNES: They seem to be born out of Trump's frustration with Putin, who's really resisted Trump's efforts to end the war and, as a result, undermined these efforts to secure Trump's legacy as a global peacemaker and perhaps one day a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. And this frustration was on display again with this new summit, this - which was announced and then canceled in a matter of days.
You know, basically, Trump felt he had something of a breakthrough in a phone conversation with Putin, some flexibility in the Russian position, which prompted the agreement to meet, only to realize in follow-up talks to set up the meeting that Russia was unwilling to make any concessions at all. Here's how Trump put it at he White House earlier this week.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don't go anywhere. They just don't go anywhere.
MAYNES: So in Trump's words, it was time for these sanctions, something he's clearly been reluctant to do until now.
PFEIFFER: Charles, from your vantage point in Moscow, what's the reaction from Russians?
MAYNES: You know, I think there's a bit of whiplash, to be honest. There was a lot of snickering here after Putin, with one phone call to Trump, not only sweet-talked him out of giving these long-range weapons to Ukraine - this is at a moment when Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was literally on his way to the White House to discuss the idea - he also got another summit meeting, in Europe, no less. The meeting was supposed to take place in Hungary until it wasn't - you know, no summit, then these sanctions.
Hawkish voices here have said, this proves Trump is no friend to Russia, even calling it an act of war. Putin was more diplomatic. He said Russia would not bend to pressure, even as he suggested Trump's decision was sorely misguided.
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PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: So here Putin says, this is, of course, an unfriendly act, but one moreover that risks undermining U.S.-Russian relations just as they're starting to thaw under Trump. You know, but Putin also suggested the meeting with Trump might still be rescheduled, and in fact, his U.S. envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, is in the U.S. today meeting with White House officials to see if he can get relations back on track. So, you know, the message seems to be that Moscow may be unhappy about these sanctions, but it clearly has decided that what Trump does today may not be what he does tomorrow.
PFEIFFER: Charles, you said the sanctions won't go into effect until the end of the month. Assuming Trump follows through and imposes them, any sense of how damaging they might be to Russia?
MAYNES: Well, Putin acknowledged they would be painful, but insisted they wouldn't be devastating to the economy, and analysts here tend to agree. Here's Marcel Salikhov of the Institute for Energy and Finance in Moscow.
MARCEL SALIKHOV: All those sanctions packages - they have some effect, but this effect lasts a couple of months, and then companies find different ways to continue trade and to continue transactions. So I think that it's reasonable to expect that it will be the same this time.
MAYNES: You know, Sacha, Salikhov also says there is a risk here, though. If third-party actors, such as China and India in particular, back off of Russian oil imports out of fear of U.S. secondary sanctions, you know, that could do real damage to the Russian economy, which is already showing signs of strain.
PFEIFFER: That's NPR's Charles Maynes in Moscow. Charles, thank you.
MAYNES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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