President Trump has effectively handed Vladimir Putin an extraordinary green light: 50 days to finish off his brutal summer offensive in Ukraine before facing any consequences.

Only if there is no deal to end the war by the end of that period, in early September, would the threatened 100 percent tariffs on Russia and secondary sanctions on Russian trading partners kick in.

That must seem like an eternity for millions of sleepless Ukrainians now enduring an escalating Russian onslaught of deadly missile and mass drone strikes on their towns and cities.

But in Moscow, officials are quietly breathing a sigh of relief. After all, it could have been much worse for them.

Sanctions could have been immediate, if President Trump had wanted, or much higher – such as the 500 percent tariff rate being proposed in a bi-partisan bill in the US Senate.