NATO Secretary General Rutte pleased with Trump's stance on sanctions against Russian Federation

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that he was glad to hear the position of US President Donald Trump on the introduction of new sanctions against Russia. He said this in an interview with CNBC on January 23.

"I was <...> pleased with Trump's position on imposing additional sanctions against Russia," Rutte said.

He said the sanctions would allegedly help aggravate the Russian economy. Rutte added that perhaps Europe will now also "apply" new sanctions.

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On January 23, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian side does not see anything new in Trump's statements about the possibility of new sanctions. Peskov expressed the opinion that Trump likes using sanctions or at least liked it during his first presidential term.

The day before, Trump threatened to raise taxes and impose new sanctions on Russian exports to the United States if the conflict in Ukraine is not resolved soon. He called the deal a favor to Russian Federation on his part. The Associated Press predicted that such threats are unlikely to work, as Russia's exports to the US are currently minimized.

Earlier, on January 15, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that Russia has been able to adapt to the sanctions while ramping up import substitution and increasing its own production levels.

Western countries increased sanctions pressure on Russia after the start of the special operation to protect civilians in Donbas, which was announced on February 24, 2022.