MOSCOW

DONALD TRUMP’S THREAT to devastate Russia financially if it will not cease fire in Ukraine, has thrown up an intriguing question: what has the United States not done to Russia already, that it will do now, aside from direct military action to actually physically destroy Russian infrastructure?

“This is the fly in the buttermilk,” insists Kremlin watcher Dr Guy Philby, of the Cambridge Chums of Peter the Great Institute, a Russian cultural organisation that has been following Kremlin politics since the 1930s. “America has thrown everything financially, bar its Tesla fleet, at Russia. I don’t see much left in the non-military arsenal. Is Trump planning on a shock and awe campaign, a la Iraq, to physically break Russia’s economy? The problem with that is that the Russians, unlike dim-witted Saddam, can hit back, and big time. Really big time. It could get super ugly. Perhaps Mr Trump has a genuine surprise financial weapon up his sleeve. I do wish he would share it with us.”