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Moscow would be open to allowing U.S. access to Russia's rare minerals, President Vladimir Putin said Monday, an apparent counteroffer and pressure tactic as the Trump administration pushes Ukraine to sign over half its mineral wealth as repayment for U.S. support in the war.
In an interview broadcast on Russian state television Monday evening, Putin also endorsed President Donald Trump's proposal for three-way nuclear arms control talks with China.
"We could come to an agreement with the United States - the United States would cut [defense spending] by 50 percent, and we would cut by 50 percent," Putin told state broadcast personality Pavel Zarubin. "And the People's Republic of China would then join in if it wanted. We think the proposal is good, and we are ready to discuss it."
The Russian leader spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping by telephone earlier in the day and affirmed their countries' "comprehensive partnership" as "true friends," according to official statements.
Putin was interviewed by Zarubin on the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He also chaired a meeting on rare earth metals production. He stressed that Russia possesses significantly more natural resources than Ukraine.
"We would be ready to offer [cooperation] to our American partners - when I say partners, I mean not only administrative, government structures, but also companies - if they showed interest in working together," he said. "We certainly have substantially, and I want to emphasize this, substantially more resources of this kind than Ukraine. Russia is one of the leaders in reserves of these rare earth metals."
He highlighted the country's vast reserves of aluminum, a metal used in such industries as aerospace and consumer electronics, suggesting that Moscow could resume supplying the material to the United States and collaborate with American businesses to further develop Russia's supplies.
The United States imports roughly half of the aluminum it uses, most of it from Canada. Russia is among the world's top four producers.
Putin said Moscow "could invite American companies" to develop aluminum reserves in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, an initiative he estimated to be worth $15 billion. He also suggested that Russia could grant the United States access to mineral deposits in the territory it occupies in eastern Ukraine, an implausible offer seemingly intended to mock Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's position.
U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia currently prohibit such cooperation, and it is unlikely that any American company would risk conducting business in occupied Ukrainian territory.
"We are ready to attract foreign partners to the so-called new, our historical territories that have returned to Russia," Putin said, using Kremlin code for occupied Ukraine. "There are certain reserves there too. We are ready to work with our partners, including the Americans, there as well."
The Russian military last month claimed control of a lithium deposit in the village of Shevchenko in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Pro-invasion Russian bloggers described the material, used in batteries, as "strategically important" for Europe and the United States, suggesting Moscow could leverage it in any negotiations to end the war.
Zarubin asked Putin about the minerals agreement Trump wants from Zelensky. "The U.S., mildly speaking, is insisting on Zelensky signing" the deal, Zarubin said. In response, Putin questioned the size of Ukraine's reserves and suggested that Washington could instead invest in developing Russian fields.
"One should assess how much resources are really there, how real is that, how much do they cost," Putin said. "But that is not our business. What is our business is what we discussed in the meeting: doing more in that field."
Putin and Xi confirmed plans to meet when Xi visits Moscow in May for Russia's 80th Victory Day, commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War - World War II.
Xi said Beijing was happy "to see Russia and relevant parties make positive efforts to defuse Ukraine crisis," according to a Chinese readout of the call. The Kremlin called the Russia-China relationship "a stabilizing factor in world affairs."
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Mary Ilyushina, a reporter on the Foreign Desk of The Washington Post, covers Russia and the region. She began her career in independent Russian media before joining CNN's Moscow bureau as a field producer in 2017. She has been with The Post since 2021. She speaks Russian, English, Ukrainian and Arabic.
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