The Kremlin and the White House confirmed that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet individually in Alaska on Friday, before expanding the talks to their delegations. The summit begins at 3:30 pm, according to the Kremlin, followed by a joint press conference. Ukraine will dominate the agenda, along with trade and cooperation between the US and Russia.
In an interview with Fox News Radio on Thursday (14), Trump described the talks as “a chess game”, as preparation for a possible subsequent meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “close a deal”.
“There will be concessions regarding borders, lands, etc.”, said Trump. “This meeting prepares the second encounter, but there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a success”, he said.
Trump said that Putin’s visit to the US signals his interest in ending the war in Ukraine and credited it to the personal affinity between the two. Although he doubted an immediate ceasefire, Trump said he expects one “to come” and suggested Alaska as a possible location for a second summit – although he backed off when pressed to say if he had asked Zelenskyy to prepare to join them. “I don’t want to talk about a second meeting, not even with him. I don’t even want to indicate that there might be a second meeting”, he said.
Earlier, in Moscow, President Putin gathered his top advisors and thanked the Trump administration for its “sincere efforts” to mediate peace, even raising the possibility of a new arms control agreement.
So far, Putin has remained silent about the meeting with Trump, even as Russians speculate about the deals that might be offered.
From a panoramic viewpoint near the river, on the outskirts of the Kremlin, Russians interviewed by NPR said they hoped for the end of the war – even if they disagreed on how to get there.
Vladimir, a former sailor from the St. Petersburg Navy, blames NATO expansion for the conflict, comparing it to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Galina Shalaikina, from Novosibirsk in Siberia, hopes the summit will end the fighting — but only after Russia achieves its military objectives. She also said she saw no reason to include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the summit.
“The leaders of two great countries are meeting”, says Shalaikina. “Why should a small and poor country like Ukraine dominate the discussions?”
Alexander, a war opponent who refused to reveal his last name for fear of government pressure, said he had “no hope” that Trump could convince Putin to stop the war.
“We will see some political negotiations that may be good for the leaders”, he explains, “but not for ordinary people”.
Putin said he wants peace — but only on Moscow’s terms. Those terms include an end to Ukraine’s NATO ambitions, demilitarization, and the concession of lands claimed by Russia. So far, he has rejected Trump’s calls for a ceasefire, appearing confident that the battlefield will give him more leverage than the negotiating table.
Sergei Markov, former Putin spokesman, argues that Trump can still help close a deal — but warns against overestimating the progress. He has seen many American presidents fail repeatedly to divert Putin from what Markov says is a fair defense of Russian interests.
“All American presidents try to fix relations with Russia — and they all end up with bad relations.” This could also happen to Donald Trump, warns Markov.
Moscow’s message: even for an American president who breaks norms and seeks peace, there are geopolitical traditions that are hard to break.
Source: npr.org by Harles Maynes