Russian President Putin on Monday said US companies could do lucrative business deals in Russia and even help mine rare earths in Russian-occupied Ukraine, further amplifying the Kremlin’s message to President Trump that there was money to be made from a better relationship with Moscow.
Putin, in an interview with Russian state TV, said Russia had an “order of magnitude” more rare earth metals than Ukraine and that Moscow was “ready to work with our foreign partners, including the Americans”, in developing those deposits.
He said the invitation applied to Russian-occupied Ukraine, as well, adding that US companies could also “make good money” by helping to develop aluminum production in Siberia. “There is something to think about here,” Putin said, referring to aluminum, “as well as about joint work on rare earth metals and in other areas, for example, energy”. The interview showed Putin working hard to appeal to Trump’s interest in profits and deal-making.
It came as Trump has swung US foreign policy in Putin’s favour at dizzying speed, as underscored by the US siding with Russia in votes at the United Nations on Monday about the war in Ukraine.
Trump has been pressuring Ukraine to agree to grant the US a share of its revenue from mining rare earth metals and other natural resources. The two sides were closing in on such an agreement on Monday. Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics.
But the interview also showed that Putin appears to be in far less of a hurry than Trump to end the war in Ukraine as Russia continues to slowly gain ground on the battlefield. “We touched on problems related to the Ukraine crisis, but it itself was not substantively discussed,” he said of the US-Russia talks.