Few East-West summit meetings in modern history have been preceded by as much speculation and uncertainty as Friday’s Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska. Few, if any, have concluded with even less clarity.
What was clear, though, was that Vladimir Putin was well satisfied. Reading from prepared notes — raising the question of whether they had been prepared before the meeting — at a press briefing after the three-hour meeting, the Russian president appeared especially satisfied with the fact that he, a pariah and wanted war criminal in Europe, was having what looked like a chummy face-to-face with the president of the United States, and on American soil, adjacent to Russia.
He heaped compliments on President Trump, even suggesting that Mr. Trump was right to say that had he been president at the time, there would have been no Ukraine war. He spoke at some length of Alaska’s Russian and Orthodox heritage, of the importance of turning the page in U.S.-Russian relations, of the great potential of trade between their countries (which drew a grin from Mr. Trump). But on the war in Ukraine, he went back to his old script, that to make a settlement lasting all the “root” causes of the conflict, which in his view are all on Ukraine’s side, have to be eliminated.
Mr. Trump, who before the meeting seemed to be moving toward a newly tough position on Russia — threatening “very severe consequences” if there was no cease-fire and even suggesting that Mr. Putin was playing him — seemed here to revert to his longstanding admiration for “Vladimir” (Mr. Putin did not publicly reciprocate with “Donald”). Mr. Trump happily mocked the accusations of Russian meddling in American elections — the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,” as he referred to it — and effusively thanked Mr. Putin for an “extremely productive meeting.” On Ukraine? Mr. Trump said “many points were agreed to” and spoke of “great progress” and “some headway,” all without any details, but acknowledged that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.” He said he’d be calling key NATO leaders and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to give them a readout.
Those calls may shed more light on whatever understanding the two presidents reached, and it remains possible that the meeting did achieve something that could be called progress. But it was hard to avoid the impression that Mr. Putin had once again succeeded in gaining more time for his war, which is currently going his way. When Mr. Putin quipped — in English — that the next summit should be in Moscow, Mr. Trump seemed delighted: “Ooh, that’s an interesting one,” he said, “I don’t know. I’ll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.”
More likely, Mr. Trump may simply lose interest in trying to end the war. When he said he’d be calling Mr. Zelensky and the Europeans, he added, “Ultimately it’s up to them.” Again, he did not elaborate, but given Mr. Trump’s faith in his deal-making skills and his gut instincts, it sounded like he was prepared to let this one go. That would explain Mr. Putin’s cheeriness — and would be a blow to Ukraine.
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