‘Putin is a Thug and Can’t Be Trusted’, Republican Senator Says Amid US-Russia Talks

US Republican Senator John N. Kennedy (R-LA) lashed out at Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday, urging the Trump administration to change its posture toward Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Putin has disrespected America, and I think he has disrespected President Trump,” Kennedy said. 

Trump unleashed weeks of frustration with Putin over what he described as “meaningless” gestures toward peace earlier this week.

In the meantime, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov today hinting at a “new and different approach” on peace settlements in Ukraine from Moscow. 

Kennedy, speaking on the Senate floor, asserted that regardless of one’s stance on the war in Ukraine, most fair-minded people can agree on two things. First, Vladimir Putin “is a dangerous thug.”  

“He is empowered. He has blood under his fingernails. He can’t be trusted,” Kennedy said of Putin.   

Second, he went on to add, most fair-minded Americans desire an end to the war Kennedy went on to emphasize that Trump has attempted to negotiate, yet Putin has treated him with profound disrespect. 

“Putin has treated our President like President Trump has taken the bullet train to chump town,” he said.

For Kennedy, Putin’s pattern is clear: “He says all the right things in discussions with our President, then consistently does the opposite.”

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This, Kennedy argued, demonstrates a profound disrespect not only for President Trump but for America itself. 

As for Ukraine, Kennedy believes that Kyiv is willing to negotiate a reasonable settlement. A resolution won’t be achieved until Putin decides it’s in his best interest to stop the war, not Russia’s best interest – Kennedy believes Putin “cares little for his own people.” According to him, the war will cease when Putin feels sufficient pressure, because “dealing with Putin is like hand-feeding a shark. You can’t reason with them. You have to make them feel the pain.”

Kennedy also highlighted that, contrary to the conventional wisdom about Russia possessing immense wealth and power, its economy is surprisingly small. The European economy, for instance, has a GDP of approximately $50 trillion, while Russia’s is only about $2 trillion – “smaller even than New York State’s economy,” as he put it.                                                                                            

Putin, he added, finances his war solely through oil sales. Without existing sanctions from the US and Europe in place, Russia has found ways to evade them, notably by selling oil to India and China.

For Kennedy, the key to bringing a tyrant like Putin to the negotiating table is to “get him down and choke him,” and that is achieved by targeting his cashflow.

To effectively cut off Putin’s cash flow, a bipartisan bill, supported by 87 senators, has been introduced. This measure, initiated by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), “will put Putin on his knees within 3 months, and he won’t have any choice but to come to the bargaining table,” he believes.

“The time has come to put Russia on its knees,” Kennedy concluded.