'Okay With Me' | Trump Backs Sanctions on Countries Trading With Russia - video Dailymotion

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00:00I think it's all part of a cooling in relations between the US and Russia, ironically enough,

00:05since the Alaska summit. We've already seen, for example, that President Trump imposed pretty high

00:11tariffs on India, and he said that that was in part due to India's continued purchases of Russian

00:17oil, and we saw India at least announce that it was going to ratchet back some of those purchases.

00:22China is the other big purchaser, and there's a big question mark there, I think, because

00:26Trump and Xi Jinping have only just really overcome some of their differences in their

00:32trade relationship, and if the US were now to go after China with big tariffs related to Russian oil,

00:38that risk, of course, ratcheting up those tensions again.

00:42What sort of damage could this do potentially to Russia's economy?

00:47Oh, really quite serious damage. I mean, the Russian government relies on oil and gas sales for

00:53something like, I think, 25% of their income now. We've already seen that some of that income is

00:59beginning to decline in recent weeks, and the Russian budget is already in deficit, so anything

01:05that deprives the Russian government of more income is going to be immediately felt on the bottom line

01:10and felt further down the line on Putin's ability to wage war.

01:13You've been in Ukraine just in the past few days, in terms of what their priorities are now and how they are

01:23managing the war that is almost four years old now.

01:27Yes, it's dragging on and on, and obviously that impacts on resilience and their ability to resist.

01:33But they seem quite determined, and when we met President Zelensky, he was making the point that what they really need

01:39is more air defence, they really need European confirmation of funding so that they can support

01:45purchases of weapons, support the economy. They're determined to get through the winter.

01:49But to be able to do that, they have to be able to resist Russian strikes on their energy infrastructure,

01:54which are causing regular power cuts in Kiev and elsewhere throughout Ukraine.

01:58And this is, I suppose, an interesting strand of Ukraine's strategy as well,

02:04is the continuing attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure as well.

02:08How significant are they, and how should we see them in the broader efforts

02:12that Ukraine is trying to make at this stage of the war?

02:16Yes, I mean, Ukraine is very directly targeting Russian energy assets like refineries,

02:21precisely to do what the sanctions are also aimed at doing,

02:25which is to deprive Russia of the ability to generate income.

02:28They're very clear that they want to continue these actions.

02:31They're developing long-range domestic missiles, which will allow them to target more deeply into Russia.

02:37And there's something of an energy war going on, really.

02:40We see Ukraine striking at refineries, and we see Russia striking at energy infrastructure

02:45to try and freeze Ukraine into submission.

02:47So it's going to be a long and intense winter.

02:50And who prevails will largely be determined, I think,

02:54by how much Ukraine can get defences for their own infrastructure.

02:57In terms of the progress, then, of the legislation in the US and how quickly all of this might happen,

03:06as you say, if it is all about the winter and getting through the winter,

03:10I think the EU has 19, if not 20, packages of sanctions against Russia.

03:16So it's also about the speed and how effective it is in delivering these sanctions.

03:22Yes, there's no doubt sanctions are having an effect on the Russian economy,

03:26but it's a slow burn, right?

03:27It takes time to have an impact for each set of sanctions.

03:30But the key package for Ukraine in terms of financing is the decision next month

03:35whether to provide loan funding based on frozen Russian assets.

03:39That decision was put off last month.

03:43President Zelensky was very clear in our interview that that's crucial for Ukraine to get through the winter,

03:47so they need a clear decision next month.

'Okay With Me' | Trump Backs Sanctions on Countries Trading With Russia

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