Playing it Cool : A Freewrite
SourceYes, Russia doesn't sound too worried by this. Is it also perhaps calculating that? President Trump won't want to stir up a global energy crisis with all that that might mean for inflation, for example, which is obviously such a big concern or something he campaigned to to to bring down. Do you think that's going through their minds?
Well, they have to play it cool. And they're also trying to call his bluff. And they also think that he might be impressionable, which he is.It's been whiplash with Trump, right? On one end, he's gonna be support Ukraine and he's gonna put pressure on Russia and the next day it changes. So they're gonna probably put their cards on that unpredictability on the side of the US president. Is it your sense that President Trump is coming round?To Congress's view on this in particular senators view on this I mean do you think he's prepared to implement it on full and I just wonder if he doesn't implement it in full well then it kind of loses its teeth doesn't it well that's just another tool that he can use right it's a it's a bargaining chip like any of the tariffs that he's threatening on anyone I think he is coming around though because.Some, you know, you realize that Russia is playing in the fool or at least trying to. He's done this before, playing hot and cold.
It's the job of Congress now and of course of European leaders who have been meeting him in various fora over the last couple of weeks to continue to him to be hot on Russia and not cold.Julia Friedlander, who worked on sanctions policy as part of the National Security Council in the Trump, Trump, Donald Trump's first administration. You're listening to News Hour from the BBC World Service.