The News
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that his country could work with the US to exploit critical mineral deposits both inside Russia as well as in areas of Ukraine currently occupied by Moscow.
The proposal came as the Trump administration and Kyiv seemed close to agreeing their own minerals-for-aid deal, with Putin saying Russia has an “order of magnitude” more of the materials than Ukraine, and that American companies could “make good money” developing aluminium production in Siberia.
The European Union also apparently tried to pitch a rival minerals deal described as a “win-win partnership” to Kyiv officials on the war’s third anniversary, but the European Commission has since denied it.
SIGNALS
Moscow is trying to lure US business back, but companies are wary
The Kremlin wants Donald Trump to think there is money to be made from thawed ties, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin is “working hard to appeal to Mr Trump’s interest in profits and dealmaking,” The New York Times wrote. But foreign companies that exited Russia will be wary of returning, a Ukraine expert argued for the Atlantic Council: They’ll have to weigh potential profits against other risks that could end up hurting shareholders, as well as any reputational damage. Companies that can set up and dismantle operations quickly, like American shale, might be more tempted, a researcher at the Baker Institute told Semafor, but “[y]ou’d have to be a pretty cavalier player to contemplate returning to Russia under Putin,” he said.
Ukraine minerals-for-aid deal an ‘extraordinary act of extortion’
Vladimir Putin’s remarks about a US-Russia minerals deal came as the Trump administration and Ukraine were reportedly closing on a minerals-for-aid deal after intense negotiations — but the details of it entails are scant. Donald Trump has argued the deal would effectively pay the US back for past aid to Kyiv. A purported draft of the agreement obtained by Axios said the US would agree to keep Ukraine “free, sovereign, and secure,” while other outlets have reported that no future security guarantees have been agreed. On its face, Trump’s proposition is an “extraordinary act of extortion,” two Foreign Policy columnists argued: “It’s just very unclear what this does other than satisfy a basic Trumpian instinct that America has been ripped off.”