Russia has openly taken potshots at European nations after US President Donald Trump threatened a 10 per cent tariff on European nations that opposed its Greenland takeover plan. Openly mocking Europe, Russian presidential envoy and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said the EU should not “provoke their daddy.”
“Trump slaps 10% tariffs on the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Finland, Netherlands, and Norway over their 'dangerous game' of sending military to Greenland,” Dmitriev wrote on US social media company X. He added that the tariffs amount to “about 1% per soldier sent to Greenland.”
Dmitriev’s response is also in reference to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte addressing Trump as “daddy” during a NATO summit last year. Rutte’s remark happened when Trump was asked about the profanity he used a day earlier to chastise both Israel and Iran for violating a recently brokered ceasefire, and his comparing them to unruly children. “They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a school yard. They fight like hell, you can’t stop them. Let them fight for about two, three minutes, then it’s easier to stop them,” Trump said. To this, Rutte had added: “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language.”
Dmitriev’s remark also comes as EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas said "China and Russia must be having a field day" on Trump's tariffs.
Experts opine that Trump’s pursuit of Greenland is creating a rift between the US and other NATO allies, fracturing the alliance and “playing straight into Russia’s hands. Trump’s refusal to rule out a military takeover helps Putin achieve his longtime aim of weakening Western alliances. “Putin wants a weaker NATO,” said a second European government official. “Trump is giving it to him.”
According to Jean-François Bélanger, assistant professor at the Institute for Military Operations at the Royal Danish Defence College, Trump is fracturing the alliance at a time where it needs to show a unitary face. We are already seeing expectations of a renewed Russian operation in Ukraine. Russia sees this as a proper time to ramp up the hurt on Ukraine. This also comes suspiciously when all the European countries are turning their attention to Greenland,” Belanger said.