Trump-Putin Meeting in Alaska Helps Russia at Europe’s Expense

US president Donald Trump has an unprecedented talent to withdraw surprises on the exhausting world. But even according to Trump’s strict standards, the announcement of the summit of his next saying with Russian President Vladimir Putin has climbed to the masses worldwide. The last time anyone was confused, terrified, or enthusiastic about any summit when former US President Richard Nixon visited the Communist China.

“This was a week other than the world,” Nixon said about his journey in 1972. For better or worse, this week can also change the world.

Sometimes it seems that the top of blood -thirsty dictators is Trump’s distinctive contribution to US diplomacy. But this is not completely unprecedented. At different times, the different American presidents shook hands and deal with some of the most deadly tyrants in the world. President Franklin de Roosevelt and Harry Truman, for example, benefited from “Uncle Joe” Stalin. Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford met Mao Zaidong, who was not only responsible for the death of tens of millions of Chinese citizens, but also, through his participation in the Korean war, tens of thousands of Americans.

But of course, when Roosevelt and Stalin met in Yalta, they were fighting on the same side of World War II. When Nixon Mao met, the fighting ended in Korea, and both countries saw a joint competitor in the Soviet Union.

There is something completely different from Putin’s invitation to Alaska to chat in the mid -brutal war, and it is waging against an ally of reality. For three years, the United States helped to resist Putin’s aggression. Now, Trump hosts the aggressor on the American soil. Imagine if President George Herpeter Bush called Saddam Hussein to hold a friendly conversation after invading Kuwait: “This aggression will not stand! … But please try the caviar. It is that. He is Delicious. “

So for a good reason that many observers wondered what Trump intends to achieve, and most importantly, how. Putin did not show any intention to give up his long -term goals in Ukraine. Salam Putin – If this comes before – he will leave Ukraine in a state of human meat, unable to defend itself or in reality, to rely on foreign protection assistance. In short, Ukraine will leave at the mercy of Russia.

Trump may think that Putin will be walked among some of his basic goals in exchange for some Ukrainian lands that have been opened, but is there a plan B if it is not present? What if Putin instead chose to give Trump’s lecture on the glorious history of Russia and lament how others were offered by others and cheated from its lands, not the least of which is Alaska, which Russia sold to the United States in 1867? If Putin does that – and there is an opportunity to be able to do so – Trump will come out and bleed the door, or will he continue to wander, as he did repeatedly, not sure ever before whether it is better to curse Putin’s curse or humiliation?

The summit will be held in Alaska. Historically, most Russian and United States summits were held either in the capital of the country or in Europe, from Reykavik in the north to Malta in the south. Helsinki witnessed some summits, not the least of which is Trump’s meeting with Putin in 2018. Geneva has repeatedly hosted American and Russian leaders: US President Dwight Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khroshov met in 1955; President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, and US President Joe Biden and Putin in 2021.

But there were some exceptions. In 1973, Soviet leader Leonid Brinv went to California. He and Nixon had an intimate meeting without a present or an American translator, and today there are records of some of their conversations in Russian only. Ford once ventured to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. President George W. Bush Putin hosted on the Texas Farm for what was welcomed at the time as a “good -finger” barbecue.

In contrast, Alaska did not see a Russian -American summit, although she hosted high -level important meetings, including the prominent Chinese American meeting in 2021. As a remote and remote republican country, although Alaska is working well with both Putin and Trump. For Putin, it provides a degree of security and privacy that cannot be achieved in a capital such as Washington, DC, where his sudden appearance is likely to meet with widespread protests. Trump may have preferred to host Putin over his herb in Mar Lago, but it is likely to be the author of Putin’s preferences. However, it is still unclear than Alaska – Americans or Russians.

Then there is a proposed Trump’s summit. The mixed indicates, if not to say confused, indicates that American negotiators Steve Wittouf about what is not offered, indicates that the summit is not a result of a deliberate strategy such as emotional defense: we will do this because she feels right!

Unlike Trump, who stands to win or lose depending on what is already happening in Alaska, Putin has already won. For him, the summit with the American President is evidence of the West’s uselessness for three years to isolate Russia and another assertion of Russia’s private role as a great power.

This, at least, will be a message that Russian propaganda will go to the local masses. It is a message that the Russians will buy because they do not want to recognize the alleged greatness of Russia. As a result, Russia-which Obama described in 2014 as merely a “regional power” was threatening some of its neighbors “out of weakness”-will appear almost equal to the United States, which proudly decided to the fate of Europe on the heads of the detained and native Europeans.

It is the Europeans, in particular, who lose. The place of the summit – in Alaska – is useful to Putin as much as it confirms that Russia and the United States, as neighbors, have many common interests regardless of what is happening in Europe. These relationships include energy. North Pole. Indeed, the future world order was formed.

There is no doubt that Putin will double his offer to support Trump’s claims to Greenland. Unlike Europeans – who felt terrifying Trump’s designs on the island – Putin believes that moves are worthy of great strength. He is fully prepared to recognize the US claims for a field of influence on the continent if Trump is similarly by recognizing Russia’s influence in Eastern Europe.

Europeans can continue to draw in despair and call Trump “my father”, but the reality remains that they are not invited to Alaska. The matters that affect them, such as European security, will be discussed in their absence by the “free world leader” and a accused war criminal. This is not a good look at Europe.

The masses will notice all over the world. Putin is scheduled to visit China in early September for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and celebrate China by winning the war against Japan. Russia’s increasing dependence on China has created the impression that Russia has become a bit of pillar or even its most powerful neighbor. Putin’s meeting with Trump will not change the basic economic reality of Russia’s dependence on China. But he will raise Putin’s position against his Chinese counterpart and improve his bargaining strength.

For all of these reasons, the possibilities are highly stacked against Trump. If the summit fails to lead to an applicable peace in Ukraine, Trump will stand accused of legalizing the aggressor without a good reason. His allies – which undoubtedly will barely consult before his dramatic declaration – and betray the confidence of Ukraine. The United States will look foolish and naive.

In the face of such difficulties, Trump is clearly confident in his intestine. Is this the condition in which its instincts bear fruit, and it is unlikely to deliver a permanent peace for Ukraine?

In order for this to happen, several factors must be in line with. First, Putin will have to accept the presence of Ukraine as a viable and independent country, able to defend itself. This would require Putin to drop some of the Rakan conditions for Russia for a peace agreement, including his request for Ukraine to “remove arms” and/or his opposition to Ukraine to obtain strong security guarantees from the West.

Second, Kyiv will accept an unstable compromise: you may have a “Russian” land that Putin has made by force. So far, Ukrainian President Folodimir Zelinski has shown a great tendency to do so, and there is little appetite in Europe for this type of deals. The idea that the Ukrainian forces may abandon lands that still control – one of Putin’s basic demands – is a much longer snapshot. Even Trump may find it difficult to accept it, it does not matter its imposition on Zelinski.

What are the tools that the American president will have to impose concessions from Putin? It can punish India or even China to buy Russian oil, but this may not be enough. It may promise to provide more weapons to Ukraine, which was incredibly hesitant to do. Finally, he can hang with the promise of Russian -American brotherhood: there are no sanctions, profitable trade, and a lot of respect everywhere.

Putin’s miracle will take to buy this deal. And in diplomacy, it is dangerous to rely on miracles.