By Nina Bachkatov
At a two-day NATO summit in Brussels, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an implicit message to President Vladimir Putin. “We will know in a few weeks if Russia wants peace,” he told delegates. The meeting’s agenda focused on European security, particularly in Ukraine, and on reassuring allies unnerved by President Trump’s apparent alignment with the Kremlin’s narrative. The summit was overshadowed by “Liberation Day,” during which Trump unveiled his latest salvo in the trade wars—tariffs targeting both allies and adversaries. European goods were hit with a 20 per cent levy, Chinese imports with 34 per cent, and Ukrainian products with 10 per cent. Russia, however, was spared—officially because, as the US Treasury noted, “we have no trade with it.”
Continue reading “Putin and Trump’s Gambles”