Putin Will Use Alaska Summit to Secure Trump’s Support for Russia’s Position on Ukraine

US President Donald Trump’s change in the tone of Russia and Ukraine has baffled his critics, including me. Throughout his time in power, Trump has given little praise to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he often defends him in the face of local political anger. On the contrary, Ukraine and President Voludimir Zelinski acquired Trump only, whose climax at a sudden end to their meeting at the White House in February.

This situation seemed to change last month after a phone call to Putin, in telling Trump, leaving him “disappointed.” In reference to Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine, Trump, “I just say I am not thinking [Putin’s] Looking to stop, and this is very bad. “

US President Donald Trump’s change in the tone of Russia and Ukraine has baffled his critics, including me. Throughout his time in power, Trump has given little praise to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he often defends him in the face of local political anger. On the contrary, Ukraine and President Voludimir Zelinski acquired Trump only, whose climax at a sudden end to their meeting at the White House in February.

This situation seemed to change last month after a phone call to Putin, in telling Trump, leaving him “disappointed.” In reference to Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine, Trump, “I just say I am not thinking [Putin’s] Looking to stop, and this is very bad. “

The weeks that followed that phone call felt a dream of a liberal international fever. The White House reflected the decision of the Ministry of Defense to stop weapons to Ukraine. Trump, who was sitting next to the NATO Secretary -General at the Oval Office, pledged to send weapons worth billions of dollars to Ukraine. He even pledged to impose sweeping tariffs and sanctions on Russia unless the war ends-a requirement to framing it for the first time as a 50-day warning, but then it was shortened to less than two weeks.

Once, apparently, the White House was pressing Moscow instead of Kiev. Many of us may have been tempted to believe that Trump was finally – firmly – on the side of sovereignty, independence and democracy. However, in fact, he might act more motivated by political necessity than the new principle. When Putin’s aggressive attack continued on Ukraine even after Trump’s warning, he made him relentlessly and ridiculed his pledge to end the conflict on his first day in office.

Instead of bending to an American end, Putin instead designed a trap, as Trump will walk later this week. For Putin, the Alaska-which will exclude Zelinski, almost almost certain when Russia-specially designed to enable Russia to continue to evade sanctions and definitions, while also ends Trump’s most sympathetic approach with Ukraine once and for all.

Putin laid the basis for his three -hour maneuver in Moscow with Trump’s Steve Witkev’s special envoy. The Russian leader gave a show on the table, and the details that survived Witkoff succeeded. But it was sufficient for both sides to justify a summit between the two leaders, which was announced within hours of the meeting.

Putin is certainly carried – Trump is returning next to him. It is likely to leave a hours of hours, during which Putin can promote Trump’s wrong reading of the origins of the war, Trump more than ever to the Ukrainian and European claim that Russia and Russia alone are responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Almost as if to inspect what we could expect later this week, Trump suggested again on Monday – the arches – that Ukraine chose to start the war.

Putin, by all standards, is ready to put a deal to peace on the table. Regardless of the details, it is likely to appeal to the Trump’s real estate pole sensors. After all, Trump has never estimated the normative aspects of Russia’s aggression. To the extent that Putin made a mistake in the war, he described it in terms of seizing lands rather than an attempt to extinguish the sovereignty of Ukraine, independence and national identity. Putin may definitely tend to believe that land and land alone can end the war-which leads to the condemnation of Ukrainian and European convictions that long-term security guarantees are necessary to ensure that any peace is solid.

In the same manner, Trump’s global viewer makes him sympathetic to Putin’s argument that today’s control lines should constitute the starting point for negotiations – not the previous map of 2022 or even from 2014, when Putin invaded for the first time Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine. Trump has never set a lot of shares in the principles of the regime based on the rules that came out of the ashes of World War II, including the idea that may not be correct and the largest countries can be allowed to bully on their young neighbors. While Zelinski, the famous during their meeting at the White House earlier this year: “You don’t have cards.”

As if putting a point more accurate on this, Trump’s ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, recently said of the Ukrainian land: “Large pieces or large sections will not be given or gained in the battlefield.” This amazing amazing phrase-“acquired in the battlefield”-is anxious that the summit will find Trump working on the principle that possession is nine tenths of the law. The starting point for any regional talks will be on Putin’s terms.

Finally, Putin is certainly calculated that the summit is a moment suitable for the heart of the text, as the Kremlin is depicted as the reasonable party participates in a constructive process while Ukraine stands, in his narration, in the way of peace. “It didn’t take a long time until this proof of the wager required that its fruits – after the news of the summit appeared,” the Ukrainians will not give their lands to the occupier. “This was a kind of statement, although the principle and moral sound led Trump and US Vice President JD Vance earlier this year to accuse Zelinski of standing on the path of peace.

Zelinski later adopted a more political intelligent approach, as he was working closely with his European counterparts to formulate antibiotics instead of flat rejection. However, the fact that Trump is due to the Kremlin talk points to discuss the origins of the war indicates that Putin’s efforts to reformulate the conditions of the diplomatic process may have already achieved some success with Trump.

Thanks to this, Trump announced that you have an open mind heading to the top, describing it as a “feeling of feeling.” However, the challenge is that the meeting itself will provide Putin as a structural feature, just as he created it. Putin’s participation in diplomacy is faced to face and displayed a concrete show, while unilateral and non -fair, can be sufficient for Trump. In Trump’s minds, with his followers, he justifies a return to his virtual condition – Putin stands out and pressed Kiev.

In fact, the Kremlin has already bought a rest of the penalties and definitions looming on the horizon. However, Putin has greater aspirations: he is sure he hopes the summit will be able to repeat Trump to his side once and for all.

The arc of history may be long, but for Trump, it bends towards the absorption of Moscow.