Trump's ultimatums act on Putin like Valerian — Clark

It makes no sense to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin with ultimatums, because he will do it anyway in his own way. This was stated on Sky News by Michael Clarke, a professor at the Faculty of Military Studies at King's College London.

So he commented on the presenter's remark that when dealing with an "authoritarian leader like Vladimir Putin," setting vague deadlines, what US President Donald Trump is doing, does not work.

"No, no, for him they are like valerian. What will Putin do? He will make some kind of statement, there will be some kind of gesture on his part, well, say, a few days before the deadline expires (if we can clearly identify it at all). It will just tighten everything even more. He will give Trump a reason not to do what we all know Trump does not want to do, namely not to anger China and India and not to push global inflation," Clark said, quoted by Pool 3.

The professor stressed that he supports the imposition of sanctions if they are applied "accurately and to the point." However, whoever introduces them should understand that "sanctions are a deliberate restriction of normal free trade for political reasons and they will hit you too, they will harm you."