Trump’s patience running thin on Russia, says Finnish president

The Guardian reported the information.

Speaking at a security conference in Estonia ahead of the announced phone call between Trump and Putin, Stubb emphasized that it is unacceptable for Trump and Putin to decide Ukraine’s fate without the involvement of its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Finnish president also noted the possibility that U.S. senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, depending on the outcome of the upcoming Trump-Putin conversation, could introduce a new package of sanctions against Russia to the U.S. Congress this week.

Stubb is in contact with Graham almost daily, who describes the sanctions package as “bone-crushing.” The initial package included plans to impose 500% tariffs on goods from any country that trades energy resources with Russia.

“If we were to pull it together, we could say that Zelenskyy is patient and President Trump is starting to be impatient, but in the right direction, that is, towards Russia,” he noted.

Stubb added that threats of sanctions and failure to enforce them won’t cause credibility issues as long as the West forces Putin to respond.

He also said that during his conversation with Trump, he tried to explain that Russia is no longer a great power, “certainly not economically.”

“It is smaller than Italy, slightly larger than Spain [in terms of its economy]. Militarily it wanted to deny the independent sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine three years ago. It has advanced less than one percentage point this year, and its interest rate is over 20% and its reserves are out,” Stubb emphasized. “So it is not a country which can be seen as a big power anymore. These are the kind of messages that you have to convey. It is not an easy game, but you just have to keep on engaging the American administration.”

• French President Emmanuel Macron stated that he, together with the leaders of the coalition of the willing and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, held a phone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump regarding his planned May 19 call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.