Experts say proposed deal with U.S. makes no sense
“If you want critical minerals, Ukraine ain’t the place to look for them,” declares Jack Lifton, executive chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute. “It’s a fantasy. There’s no point to any of this. There’s some other agenda going on here. I can’t believe that anybody in Washington actually believes that it makes sense to get rare earths in Ukraine.”
In at least one conference, Trump repeatedly referred to them as “raw earths.” He just doesn’t know his ass from his elbow. I sort of assume that Putin is at the root of his sudden obsession with raw earths, but who knows. But he doesn’t even really “believe” things in the reality-connected way that you or I would use the term.
Because Putin doesn’t give a flying duck for anything east of Moscow, Russia is a major producer of some rare earths.
I guess this is probably a strategy to say: “hey, Russia is selling us double of what Ukraine promised.”