'Popping champagne': Putin laughing off Trump's ultimatum and doing 'anything he likes'

15 July

President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2025 (Image: Shutterstock)

President Donald Trump was quickly mocked by political observers on Monday over his highly-teased threat to impose a 100% tariff on Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a ceasefire deal with Ukraine in 50 days.

Now, it appears Russia is also mocking the American President’s “ultimatums,” declaring they refuse his terms and will continue to attack the sovereign nation of Ukraine until their goals are met: namely, seizing control of key Ukrainian territory and permanently blocking the country’s accession into NATO.

“In response to President Trump’s threat to impose 100% secondary tariffs on countries that do business with Russia if Putin’s government does not agree to a deal to end the war in that timeframe, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Tuesday that ‘any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us,’ according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency,” CBS News reported.

“If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy,” Ryabkov added, “then the SVO (war in Ukraine) will continue… This is an unshakable position. We would like Washington and NATO as a whole to take it with the utmost seriousness.”

On Monday, Trump effectively tanked a bipartisan Senate bill that would have imposed a 500% tariff on nations doing business with Russia, saying he did not believe it was necessary, although he would not oppose it. Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune pulled the bill.

“Trump’s Russia announcement is being portrayed as toughening his stance,” wrote The New York Times’ Peter Baker, “but in fact what he did was give Putin a 50-day free pass to do anything he likes in Ukraine without further US punishment as the Senate sanctions bill is now put on hold.”

“Moreover,” he added, “the Russians have paid attention and realize that Trump deadlines tend to be less than firm so they have already indicated that they don’t take this one all that seriously.”

And on Tuesday, providing Russia with more good news, Trump said he did not think Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be targeting Moscow with missiles.

“Ukraine shouldn’t target Moscow even though Moscow targets Kyiv every day, and the U.S. is not looking to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov. “Everyone in the Kremlin who thought for a few hours that Trump may be serious about pressure on Russia is popping champagne 🍾”

During the 2024 campaign Trump promised to end the war “on day one.”

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