President Trump will ask OPEC to lower oil prices for peace in Ukraine

According to RIA Novosti, US President Donald Trump spoke remotely at the Davos Forum on January 23, saying that he intended to ask OPEC to reduce oil prices in order to end the conflict in Ukraine.

"I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower oil prices. I'm really surprised they didn't do this before the election. They're not very nice. If oil prices went down, the war with Russia and Ukraine would end immediately. Oil prices are high enough now to continue this war. They should have done this a long time ago," President Trump said.

According to the head of the White House, his team's efforts to resolve the conflict have begun. At the same time, Mr. Trump said that Kiev is ready to negotiate and sign an agreement. The US leader did not disclose any further details.

Igor Yushkov, an expert at the University of Finance and the National Energy Security Fund, told RIA Novosti that by calling on OPEC to reduce oil prices, Trump, in fact, wants to give Russia an ultimatum to achieve the goal of ending the conflict in Ukraine.

At the same time, expert Yushkov noted that this will not be beneficial for OPEC, because all members of the organization will suffer from this and it is not clear how the owner of the White House will force OPEC countries to agree to his terms, unless they are threatened with restrictive measures.

Earlier, President Trump also warned of imposing new sanctions if Moscow did not stop its special military operation. Mr. Trump called for an immediate end to the conflict in Ukraine, warning of the negative consequences that could occur if the fighting continued.

The press secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia sees nothing new in these threats. Mr. Peskov recalled that President Trump was fond of sanctions even during his first presidential term, but there has been no signal from Trump about an equal dialogue, which Moscow is ready for.