When Donald Trump unveiled his table of tariffs in Washington last week, there was one country that was conspicuously absent from his list: Russia. The White House’s argument was that there was no point slapping tariffs on trade with Moscow because the existing sanctions in place against it meant there was negligible bilateral trade going on between the two countries. Despite this, the global trade war that has erupted will still impact Russia, threatening to undermine Moscow’s economic stability, stifle its already slowing growth and amplify its strategic dependence on Beijing.
Trump’s trade realignments will further marginalise Russia as an energy supplier
The White House’s justification for excluding Russia from its tariffs list withers under scrutiny. In 2024, Russian exports to the US totalled $3.27 billion (£2.56 billion) – a three-decade nadir – with American exports to Russia at a mere $526 million (£412 billion). By comparison, Lesotho – an African nation with just two million inhabitants – exports approximately $2 billion (£1.6
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