Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin was labeled a “historic event” at the White House even before it took place. And indeed, it was the first negotiations between Russian and American presidents in many years. Trump’s predecessor, Joseph Biden, had held a virtual meeting with Putin on the eve of Russia’s major assault on Ukraine. At that time, Washington knew well that the plan of aggression had already been approved, and Biden’s conversation with Putin was the last attempt to dissuade the Russian president from taking this reckless step. But Putin was so confident in a quick victory over his neighboring state that he paid no attention to the warnings from the United States. After that, Biden effectively “froze” any high-level contacts with the Kremlin.
Trump has now resumed these contacts. Immediately after his election, he began calling Putin with proposals for a ceasefire on the Russian-Ukrainian front—and each time received a refusal. Why the U.S. president decided that during a personal meeting he would be able to achieve a different result remains a mystery. Just as mysterious is what actually happened during this encounter.
The only things we could see with our own eyes were Trump applauding when he met Putin at the Anchorage airport, their joint ride in a single presidential limousine—Trump’s car—and a short press conference at which journalists were not allowed to ask a single question. Putin spoke for eight minutes, dedicating only two of them to Ukraine. Trump spoke for three minutes and concluded: no agreement was reached.
Everything that happened afterward has been more of an attempt to justify the sense of the meeting than a report on its real content. Perhaps Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Trump invited to the White House together with European leaders on Monday, will learn more than we know. But for now, any information about real progress looks more like the fantasies of the American president than facts. After all, when Trump talks about the possibility of preparing a trilateral meeting of the presidents of the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine, and even names a date, Kremlin aide on international policy Yuri Ushakov—one of the summit participants—denies that such a topic was discussed at all. So which information reflects reality, and which is just wishful thinking?
Reality is also the fact that Trump has no intention of imposing new sanctions against Russia. Although the American president has threatened them more than once, each time Putin has managed to persuade him to abandon pressure. That is why Trump is right when he calls this war “Biden’s war” and not his own. Russia feels the sanction pressure of Biden, not Trump. Ukraine receives military aid voted for during Biden’s tenure, not Trump’s. Putin’s isolation was built through Biden’s efforts, not Trump’s. Trump himself is trying to break this isolation, but even in this he has not been very successful so far.
In fact, the American president has simply joined the leaders of China, India, or South Africa, who, even after the start of the great war, maintained contacts with the Kremlin. Other democratic leaders boycotted Putin and continue to boycott him. Yet for the Russian president, it is fundamentally important to talk precisely with the leaders of the U.S. and China—and Donald Trump gave him this opportunity.
Trump granted it, obviously hoping that in return Putin would agree to a ceasefire. But the Russian president not only rejected this proposal but also convinced his American counterpart that the best option is to prepare a “comprehensive peace agreement” simultaneously with the continuation of the war. This is the very approach Putin has tried to impose on Trump from the first day of his stay in the White House. And this time, too, he insisted on it.
Still, Trump may yet outplay Putin if he truly manages to stop the war on just terms. Then the meaning of all those phone calls, meetings in Alaska, and promises of the American president will become clear. Then we will be able to speak of facts rather than political fantasies, which for several months now have shaped Donald Trump and his team’s approach to the most terrible war in Europe since the Second World War.
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