The Alaska summit has finished. Donald Trump afterwards described it as a “ten out of ten” experience, declaring that “great progress” was made towards peace in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin appreciated the camaraderie and Trump responded with hand pats and tender glances.
The American allowed the Russian to dominate a press conference, which prevented the press from asking any questions. Putin, holding his sheaf of prepared notes, expertly performed a political somersault. During the current war he and his administration have scoffed at any idea that Russia is fighting Ukraine.
For Putin, Ukrainian president Zelensky is merely an American puppet and America alone bears the responsibility for prolonging the current war.
In Anchorage, though, Putin instead highlighted the military aid that the US transferred to Russia in the Second World War across the Bering Strait.
It was a ploy to deflect attention from the Ukrainian question. In the week before the summit, president Trump had huffed and puffed like a strongman.
He growled that if Putin rejected steps to a ceasefire, he would introduce ‘severe’ secondary economic sanctions that would punish any country that bought Russian oil and gas.
If Trump had stuck to this standpoint in Alaska, Russia’s economy would now be succumbing to crippling pressure of sanctions against countries which buy their oil and gas from Moscow. Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov would have to tell Putin that the “special military operation” was no longer affordable.
Currently the Russian cost of living index is high, but Russians have found it bearable. Any further heightening would spell danger for the Kremlin. But Donald suddenly lost his militancy when he met Vladimir at the airport and invited him to join him on the backseat of “The Beast” – the armoured Cadillac that usually carries only the US president.
In Anchorage, Trump appeared to fall, not for the first time, for Putin’s charm. Putin learned his skills at a KGB training school where one of the textbooks – believe it or not – was Dale Carnegie’s “How to Make Friends and Influence People”.
At the press conference, as his heralded super-deal to end the Ukraine war tumbled to the floor, Trump’s morale appeared punctured. This is no surprise after weeks when he insisted that a speedy agreement on land swaps was available for a permanent peace.
In a Fox TV interview immediately after the summit, however, he suggested that it is no longer his but rather Zelensky’s task to negotiate such a deal.
He did not say how Zelensky might do this without capitulating to Russian terms and ending his own presidency because Ukraine, for all its defects, is a democracy, and Ukrainians agree that national surrender should not be an option for their rulers. Putin’s invasion has reinforced, not undermined, this resolve.
As Zelensky has pointed out, Ukraine’s sovereignty and its protection are a vital interest for all of Europe. Some commentators in the West still blame the United States for over-expanding Nato membership. They fail to understand that the ex-communist countries of Eastern Europe banged on Washington’s door throughout the 1990s to allow them to join the alliance.
They rightly assumed, from their experience at the USSR’s hands, that Russia had not necessarily lost its imperial instincts. They needed to secure their defences in case there was a resurgence of Russian power. When the price of oil rose on world markets in the early 2000s, Russia’s ambitions grew with its financial revenues.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are thankful that they made it into Nato before Putin could do to them what he has done to Ukraine. But as was shown in 2007 by the cyber-attack on Estonia’s entire IT network, Russia continues to regard Baltic states as potential prey.
Were Ukraine to drown in the current wave of Russian offensives it would not be long before moves were made against other countries along the Baltic littoral.
Donald Trump has handed over to Zelensky the responsibility for dealing with Moscow. Earlier this year he and vice-president JD Vance were personally offensive to Zelensky at a live TV session in the White House when war leader Zelensky was even criticised for wearing military fatigues rather than a suit and tie. American supplies of war-fighting equipment have always been crucial in enabling the Ukrainians to defend themselves.
But Trump has sometimes turned off the tap, and it now has to be kept open by the European powers which buy arms from the United States for transfer to Ukraine. The concern must be that the White House might decide to suspend even this arrangement.
What, though, does Trump now expect of Zelensky? Will he demand agreement to so-called land swaps as the price for any kind of support from America? And will the American president continue circling in orbit around Planet Putin?
The answer will not depend solely on Trump’s preferences. As the first editions of Russian press told the summit story on Saturday morning, the Alaska talks were a victory for Putin.
Without promising a ceasefire, Russia was beckoned back into the comity of the world’s great powers. Until now Trump has received an easy ride from the conservative end of the American media spectrum. But Americans are patriots first and foremost – how long will they put up with the master of the deal, who has the pack of cards in his grasp, dealing with them so ineptly?
Public opinion in the United States does not favour presidential losers – one of Trump’s favourite words of abuse – when they permit the public humiliation of American power and prestige.
The Alaska summit has finished. Donald Trump afterwards described it as a “ten out of ten” experience, declaring that “great progress” was made towards peace in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin appreciated the camaraderie and Trump responded with hand pats and tender glances.
The American allowed the Russian to dominate a press conference, which prevented the press from asking any questions. Putin, holding his sheaf of prepared notes, expertly performed a political somersault. During the current war he and his administration have scoffed at any idea that Russia is fighting Ukraine.
For Putin, Ukrainian president Zelensky is merely an American puppet and America alone bears the responsibility for prolonging the current war.
In Anchorage, though, Putin instead highlighted the military aid that the US transferred to Russia in the Second World War across the Bering Strait.
It was a ploy to deflect attention from the Ukrainian question. In the week before the summit, president Trump had huffed and puffed like a strongman.
He growled that if Putin rejected steps to a ceasefire, he would introduce ‘severe’ secondary economic sanctions that would punish any country that bought Russian oil and gas.
If Trump had stuck to this standpoint in Alaska, Russia’s economy would now be succumbing to crippling pressure of sanctions against countries which buy their oil and gas from Moscow. Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov would have to tell Putin that the “special military operation” was no longer affordable.
Currently the Russian cost of living index is high, but Russians have found it bearable. Any further heightening would spell danger for the Kremlin. But Donald suddenly lost his militancy when he met Vladimir at the airport and invited him to join him on the backseat of “The Beast” – the armoured Cadillac that usually carries only the US president.
In Anchorage, Trump appeared to fall, not for the first time, for Putin’s charm. Putin learned his skills at a KGB training school where one of the textbooks – believe it or not – was Dale Carnegie’s “How to Make Friends and Influence People”.
At the press conference, as his heralded super-deal to end the Ukraine war tumbled to the floor, Trump’s morale appeared punctured. This is no surprise after weeks when he insisted that a speedy agreement on land swaps was available for a permanent peace.
In a Fox TV interview immediately after the summit, however, he suggested that it is no longer his but rather Zelensky’s task to negotiate such a deal.
He did not say how Zelensky might do this without capitulating to Russian terms and ending his own presidency because Ukraine, for all its defects, is a democracy, and Ukrainians agree that national surrender should not be an option for their rulers. Putin’s invasion has reinforced, not undermined, this resolve.
As Zelensky has pointed out, Ukraine’s sovereignty and its protection are a vital interest for all of Europe. Some commentators in the West still blame the United States for over-expanding Nato membership. They fail to understand that the ex-communist countries of Eastern Europe banged on Washington’s door throughout the 1990s to allow them to join the alliance.
They rightly assumed, from their experience at the USSR’s hands, that Russia had not necessarily lost its imperial instincts. They needed to secure their defences in case there was a resurgence of Russian power. When the price of oil rose on world markets in the early 2000s, Russia’s ambitions grew with its financial revenues.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are thankful that they made it into Nato before Putin could do to them what he has done to Ukraine. But as was shown in 2007 by the cyber-attack on Estonia’s entire IT network, Russia continues to regard Baltic states as potential prey.
Were Ukraine to drown in the current wave of Russian offensives it would not be long before moves were made against other countries along the Baltic littoral.
Donald Trump has handed over to Zelensky the responsibility for dealing with Moscow. Earlier this year he and vice-president JD Vance were personally offensive to Zelensky at a live TV session in the White House when war leader Zelensky was even criticised for wearing military fatigues rather than a suit and tie. American supplies of war-fighting equipment have always been crucial in enabling the Ukrainians to defend themselves.
But Trump has sometimes turned off the tap, and it now has to be kept open by the European powers which buy arms from the United States for transfer to Ukraine. The concern must be that the White House might decide to suspend even this arrangement.
What, though, does Trump now expect of Zelensky? Will he demand agreement to so-called land swaps as the price for any kind of support from America? And will the American president continue circling in orbit around Planet Putin?
The answer will not depend solely on Trump’s preferences. As the first editions of Russian press told the summit story on Saturday morning, the Alaska talks were a victory for Putin.
Without promising a ceasefire, Russia was beckoned back into the comity of the world’s great powers. Until now Trump has received an easy ride from the conservative end of the American media spectrum. But Americans are patriots first and foremost – how long will they put up with the master of the deal, who has the pack of cards in his grasp, dealing with them so ineptly?
Public opinion in the United States does not favour presidential losers – one of Trump’s favourite words of abuse – when they permit the public humiliation of American power and prestige.