A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We have the view from Moscow of President Trump's shifting efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In recent days, President Trump said he would hold another summit meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Then he said he wouldn't. He has said Ukraine will have to surrender territory to the Russian invaders yet also imposed new sanctions on Russia.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Moscow correspondent, Charles Maynes, is watching all of this from the Russian capital. Charles, so let's start with these sanctions. They seem to be a bit of a shift in Trump's approach to Russia. Tell us more about them.
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: Yeah, sure, A. these sanctions target two of Russia's top oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which jointly make up nearly half of Russian oil exports, and they're significant because they mark the first time Trump has followed through on threats to make Russia pay a price for its war in Ukraine.
MARTÍNEZ: So why now?
MAYNES: Well, it's no secret Trump wants to see this war end, part of his larger mission, I think, to cast himself as a global peacemaker. You know, and Trump has expressed real frustration with Putin's foot-dragging on a peace deal, most recently with this summit meeting, agreed to and then tabled in a matter of days. Now, the reason is negotiations to set up the meeting showed zero flexibility from the Russian side, flexibility that Trump thought he had from Putin, including to Trump's latest proposal, which was to freeze the conflict along current battle lines. Now, was this a case of miss signals, of being played? We just don't know. But Trump said, with Putin, he found it was often nice talk, but the actual deal-making went nowhere, and so sanctions.
MARTÍNEZ: And, Charles, what about Russian reaction to all this? Because I can't imagine they're pleased.
MAYNES: They are not. I think, though, this took Moscow a bit by surprise. You know, one moment they're up. The next, they're down. You know, the summit idea itself came out of a phone call that Putin initiated with Trump, just as Trump was set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the possibility of giving U.S. long-range weapons, these Tomahawk missiles you may have heard about. Trump then decides not to give the Tomahawks and said he'll meet with Putin instead, which was seen as a real coup here in Moscow - until it wasn't. You know, suddenly, it's no meeting, now sanctions. Putin addressed the issue last night with reporters, saying this undermined a recent progress in restoring relations with the U.S., that he hoped the meeting with Trump wasn't canceled but postponed, but he also gave no ground.
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PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: (Speaking Ukrainian).
MAYNES: So here, he says, no self-respecting country or no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. Now, Charles, is there any way to think that these sanctions might work and might change Vladimir Putin's calculus when it comes to negotiating an end to the war?
MAYNES: For now, the answer would seem to be no. Putin acknowledged these sanctions were harmful but insisted they were not fatal to the Russian economy. And it's true. You know, oil revenues make up a significant portion of the federal budget, but there are others. And certainly, Russia has a lot of practice with sanctions evasion, including in the energy sector. But this could make things really uncomfortable for Russia, particularly if China and India scale back oil imports out of fear of secondary sanctions, for example. But then, again, you know, there are risks for Trump here, too. His predecessor, Joe Biden, didn't impose sanctions on Russian oil for a reason. He was afraid of how they might affect global markets and, of course, how they might affect the American consumers.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Moscow correspondent, Charles Maynes. Charles, thank you.
MAYNES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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