The authors of the article believe that Trump has the leverage to compel Putin to immediately cease Russia's war against Ukraine, provided he abandons the weak and inconsistent economic pressure exerted by former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration.
The publication notes that just a few weeks ago, many supporters of Ukraine openly feared that Trump might force a poor peace agreement tantamount to capitulation. However, it seems Trump has shifted his stance on Putin after discovering how weak the Russian economy truly is due to the funding of the war.
According to journalists, if the Russian leader loses oil revenues that have supported him for the past three years, then Putin's regime is almost certain to collapse. Trump has recognized the power of this leverage, writes Time.
The publication points out that Putin has already utilized Russian resources for a rainy day. The Russian Central Bank has run out of "firepower," and Putin cannot cut spending without depriving the military machine of funds.
Russia cannot compensate for the lost oil exports as it has already lost 90% of its former natural gas exports due to Europe completely moving away from dependency on Russian gas. The article states that Russia contributes very little to the global economy aside from energy exports.
Time added that thanks to Trump's promises to lower oil prices and increase domestic oil production in the U.S. by 3 million barrels per day, the world will no longer need Russian oil production.
Furthermore, the publication emphasizes that the production costs of Russian oil are significantly higher than those of major oil producers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and others. This is due to the inaccessibility of the main oil fields located in the northern regions of Russia.
The media reminds us that the Cold War ended largely due to the unexpected collapse of the Russian economy, which many experts did not foresee, but whose vulnerability Ronald Reagan identified more intuitively than through careful analysis of the problems.