US seems content to cosy up to Russia instead of imposing tariffs

Russia is the glaring omission from Donald Trump’s tariffs list. Along with Cuba, Belarus and North Korea, it has been spared the sweeping measures, with America’s foes apparently treated better than many of its friends.

The explanation given by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to the US outlet Axios was that existing sanctions “preclude any meaningful trade” with Russia.

But the numbers don’t quite back that up.

It’s certainly true that US-Russia trade isn’t what it was. The war in Ukraine has seen it plummet from $35bn (£26.6bn) in 2021 to $3.5bn (£2.6bn) in 2024.

But last year’s figure was still higher than Washington‘s trade volume with Kyiv ($2.9bn, £2.2bn), and that didn’t stop Ukraine from being slapped with 10% levies.

It’s also considerably more than what the US traded with the likes of Brunei ($366m, £278m) and Mauritius ($282.5m, £214.9m) – another two nations which didn’t escape the punitive measures.

What’s more, from Donald Trump’s point of view, the vast majority of US-Russia trade is flowing in the wrong direction, i.e. into America. Of that, $3.5bn (£2.6bn) in 2024, $3bn (£2.2bn) were Russian imports, like fertiliser and aluminium, giving a deficit that’s much worse (proportionally speaking) than several of those on the naughty list.

So what’s behind Russia’s exemption?

Many say it smacks of further favouritism towards the Kremlin.

“I hope the American people get an explanation for this. I find it outrageous,” Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, wrote on X.

Donald Trump has been lambasted by critics for not being tough enough on Vladimir Putin as he pushes for a peace deal in Ukraine.