US treasury secretary Scott Bessent thinks more sanctions on Russia and the countries that buy oil from it — which prominently includes India — can bring about an economic “collapse”. Only such a collapse will bring Russia’s Vladimir Putin back to the table and have peace talks with Ukraine, Bessent argued in an interview with NBC on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent at the White House.(AFP File)

In his reference to “countries that buy Russian oil”, Bessent did not name any as such, but India remains the biggest target of US tariffs over this issue, despite a recent thaw which saw President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi underlining their mutual appreciation and friendship through the press and social media.

“We are in a race now between how long can the Ukrainian military hold up versus how long can the Russian economy hold up? And if the US and the EU can come in with more sanctions, more secondary tariffs on the countries that buy Russian oil, the Russian economy will be in full collapse and that will bring President Putin to the table,” he said.

“We (the US) are prepared to increase pressure on Russia, but we need our partners in Europe to follow,” Bessent said in the interview.

Russia is under crippling sanctions from both the US and Europe since the start of the war, but has found customers for Russian oil and gas in India, China and elsewhere.

Several top US officials, including Vance, have interpreted the tariffs on India as “leverage” against Putin. The US has at different points called the conflict in Ukraine “Modi’s war”, accusing India of “fueling the Russian war machinery”.

India has questioned the logic of the 25% “penal” tariff over its Russian oil deals — taking the total US import duties on most Indian products to 50% — and argued that it’s only acting in sovereign national interest.

About more sanctions, and resultant tariffs, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance spoke to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday. She later spoke to Bessent about sanctions, Bloomberg noted in its report.

The “need a Russian economic collapse” argument comes as Trump’s plans for a mediated end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine have not borne fruit even after his summit with Putin in Alaska last month.

In fact, the war has escalated now.

Russia bombed the main Ukrainian government complex in Kyiv on Sunday, an attack deemed a “serious escalation of the conflict” by Ukraine and its mainly European allies.