Free Republic

One country that did not feature on Donald Trump's list of tariffs on US trade partners was Russia. US outlet Axios quoted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying this was because existing US sanctions on Russia "preclude any meaningful trade" and noting that Cuba, Belarus and North Korea were also not included. However, nations with even less trade with the US - such as Syria, which exported $11m of products last year according to UN data quoted by Trading Economics - were on the list. The US imposed large-scale sanctions on Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said his country won't accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal, following high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. "Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable," he said. Russia and the US said they had agreed to appoint teams to start negotiating the end of the war. "Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said following the meeting. Ukraine was not invited...