WASHINGTON — Vladimir Putin is feeling the sting of President Trump’s new oil sanctions — so much so that he dispatched one of his top henchmen on a desperate charm offensive across the US.
Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin-linked financier who once served as Moscow’s backchannel to Washington, spent the weekend trying to schmooze top Trump officials and going on a media blitz.
But the move failed spectacularly, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bluntly blasting Dmitriev as a “Russian propagandist,” and NATO Amb. Matt Whitaker flatly rejected his overtures — saying the administration’s energy crackdown would continue.
On one of the country’s biggest Sunday morning news shows, Bessent mocked Dmitriev’s latest assertion that the sanctions would have “absolutely no effect on Russia’s economy” and “will only lead to gasoline costing more at American gas stations.”
“I think Russia is going to feel the pain immediately … And Margaret, are you really going to publish what a Russian propagandist says?” Bessent said on “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan, chiding the host for bringing up Dimitriev’s claims.
“I mean, what else is he going to say? That, ‘oh, it’s going to be terrible, and it’s going to bring Putin to the table’?
“The Russian economy is a wartime economy. Growth is virtually zero. Inflation, I believe, is over 20% and everything we do is going to bring Putin to the table. It’s oil that funds the Russian war machine, and I think we can make a substantial dent in his profits.”
The markets support Bessent’s assessment, with Lukoil and Rosneft, the two oil companies losing $11.5 billion in combined market value since Trump levied the sanctions, according to the Moscow Times.
The trend continued on Monday, with Rosneft shares falling roughly 5.6% to 368.4 rubles — the lowest since March 2023, according to the report. Lukoil similarly dropped 6.5%, following a whopping 12.2% plunge last week.
Whitaker, meanwhile, said Putin’s decision to send Dmitriev for the whirlwind weekend visit further proved that “President Trump holds all the cards” on Fox News’ The Sunday Briefing.
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“The Russians should in this senseless war as soon as they possibly can. It’s not going to get better for them, and President Trump’s going to continue to play these cards, like these significant oil sanctions,” he said. “… Every single turn the Russians are not showing from a position of strength. They’re actually they look very weak right now.”
“… They should end this war in the killing. They’re not gaining any territory for the thousands of troops that they’re losing every single week on the battlefields in Ukraine.”
Analysts with whom The Post spoke on Monday said Putin’s decision to rush Dmitriev to the US following the sanctions indicated that the Kremlin is squirming from the economic pressure.
“It’s a sign that the White House is developing strategic clarity that Moscow is not willing to negotiate anything beyond the terms of American concessions and Ukraine surrender, and that the admin shouldn’t allow the Russians to continue wasting President Trump’s time by dragging out the process,” Institute of the Study of War’s Russia team lead George Barros told The Post.
While Dmitriev held some meetings with US officials — including Rep. Anna Paulina Lune (R-Fla.) and Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff — Foundation for Defending Democracy’s Russia program director John Hardie said Dmitriev largely stuck his foot in his mouth, and did not seem successful in attempts to persuade Washington from letting up the pressure until action steps toward peace are taken.
“I don’t know what he and Witkoff discussed, but I doubt the visit will yield much for Moscow,” he said. “And frankly, Dmitriev’s messaging and some of the meetings he took just come across as pathetic and tone deaf.
