Putin was greeted with applause on the airport ramp, but hurriedly escorted out in the corridor
The political storm that quickly swept in on August 8, when Trump announced a meeting with Putin instead of sanctions, has ended. Earlier than scheduled and without any agreement reached. The consequences now have to be cleaned up.
There are several different substories in this story – for the USA, for Russia, for Europe, for NATO and the EU, and, of course – for Ukraine. However, there were two of the key actors. Let’s figure out what it was for them.
Відео
There is little material for analysis. This is Trump and Putin’s appearance to the press after the talks, where Putin spoke first for eight and a half minutes, and Trump for only three and a half minutes. And also the interview that Trump gave to Fox News immediately after the talks.
For Trump, this story would be boiled down to “I trusted Putin again, he’s a ‘nice guy.’” In the interview, Trump rated the talks 10 out of 10.
That being said, the meeting took place. Yet while the Russian president was speaking about peace and the “common roots” of the nations, his army continued to devastate Ukrainian cities. There are agreements, but no deal struck. The meeting was productive, but complete understanding was never reached. Putin, just like Trump himself, would like the war to end, but it didn’t work out.
So, the result is clearly overrated. Nothing surprising; Trump is appreciating himself, actually. Well, he is the most successful and the best president, after all. I would give Trump 10 out of 10 for just one thing – for deciding to end the meeting earlier instead of wasting time on extended talks and lunch.
It is worth paying tribute to his patience: if the talks were held in the same mode as the appearance to the media, it is surprising that he did not leave earlier. Putin spoke twice as long, strictly sticking to the theses contained in the sheets of paper on the podium in front of him. And these were not short messages, but lengthy comments on everything.
Фото Photo: Х/WhiteHouse
From Trump’s post-talks interview with Fox, it became clear why the White House called the meeting historic, and why Trump praised it so highly. The meeting showed that the leaders of the two major nuclear powers can come to an agreement. They can, but they didn’t, for some reason.
Trump also said that he would call Zelensky and someone in NATO. Although he said ahead of the summit that he wouldn’t call anyone should the meeting end up with no agreement. He furthermore said that the next step towards a peace deal in Ukraine now depends on Zelensky, and he and Putin supposedly talked over and agreed on issues of territories and security guarantees for Ukraine.
If these are the same agreements that Witkoff negotiated with Putin in the Kremlin, then Zelensky has already given the firm response: there will be no surrender, we won’t trade in territory for peace.
Trump also noted that Russia is a big country. It’s hard to argue against the obvious. But by this argument he justifies the need for Ukraine to reach a deal with Russia, because it is not that big. The law of the jungle and the rule of force seem to be ruling.
The truth is we expected that pressure and force would be used specifically against Putin, because it was he who started and continues to kill.
We also heard that there will be no new tariffs and sanctions imposed on Russia yet. And Trump was also pleased to hear Putin confirming the allegation by his friend Donald, that if Trump were president in 2022, there would be no war in Ukraine.
From Putin’s perspective, this story looks completely different; it could be described as “Homemade Prep for a Two Move Action,” or “Running Away from Peace.”
His speech at the briefing began with a lengthy general introduction, obviously inspired by historian Medinsky. It makes references to close neighbors, a dear neighbor, and even the surprising “glad to see you in good health and alive,” as though he flew to meet a deceased Trump.
Additionally, he made mentions of a shared history and a vast cultural heritage. Someone has told him that there are over 700 geographical toponyms in Alaska that supposedly originate from Russia. Here, it seems, according to the old Soviet habit, the indigenous peoples of Alaska – the Eskimos and Aleuts – were also included among the Russians.
Looking into the essence of Putin’s statements, they were basically the same old theses about the transition from confrontation to dialogue, good direct contacts that were established with Trump and his administration. And this is supposedly contributive to resolving the Ukrainian conflict. Here again, there is the same narrative that portrays the conflict as being purely Ukrainian one, that there is no war or Russian aggression.
Then follows a large dose of hypocrisy intended for foreign consumers: We have always considered and still consider the Ukrainian people to be brotherly, however strange that may sound in the current circumstances… we share the same roots. He finally admitted that such a people does exist!
And then followed the crocodile-tears-style “Our country is sincerely interested in putting an end to this war.” And then the old song again – it is necessary to eliminate all the root causes of the crisis.
And finally, something new, this is the first time we hear it: I agree with President Trump in that Ukraine’s security definitely needs to be taken care of. It seems that this is all that Trump has managed to achieve – a public mention of Ukraine’s security by Putin.
And then Putin is at it again: Kyiv and European capitals should show a constructive approach to this all (the understanding with Trump) and not create obstacles or try to disrupt the progress being made.
Everything is clear here, we have long learned to read this language: in Russian newspeak, not to create obstacles means accepting an ultimatum.
And we have already heard from the very beginning when the discussion came to the objectives set for Putin’s [special military operation] SVO how the Kremling sees Ukraine’s security – a pro-Russian proxy government sitting in Kyiv, which would be completely subordinate and obedient to Moscow.
Putin’s two-step plan: first, to get out of international isolation, and second, to delay sanctions, and ideally, to fool Trump to a degree where he completely forgets about it. But that won’t happen, he has already been reminded and is being questioned by the American media.
Homemade preps are also obvious, both those used publicly and those prepared for negotiations (pseudo-historical excursions and fake maps again?)
One of such preps is the date line, which Putin mentioned to the press and which very poorly correlated with the content and rhetoric of the event. He said you can literally move from yesterday to tomorrow, and that’s what he hoped the U.S. and Russia would do in the political sense. He said one thing, but did the exact opposite and flew into his dark Russian yesterday.
And one more thing. Putin’s words about “solving the Ukrainian issue” sounded quite threatening and completely gloomy. Something we are already familiar with.
And, finally the last thing. He did utter the word “war” when expressing his solidarity with Trump’s mantra that if he were president, there would be no war.
фото Photo: Х/WhiteHouse
The peace dialogue, at least this part of it, does not end there; there will be follow-up telephone calls, comments from leaders, interpretations and clarifications.
The progress, if any, can be briefly summed up thus: the summit took place, but for the time being we cannot say whether this event brought peace closer or further away.
There is still no answer to the question as to how to stop the fighting and at least get Putin to stop killing our people.
There is a concept such as “Spanish shame”, “also known as “secondhand embarrassment.” It describes the feeling of shame or awkwardness experienced when observing someone else’s embarrassing behavior. When you would like this not to happen. It seems to me that after Saturday night, we can talk about “Alaska shame”. But let’s leave the emotional assessments to the Americans. There is yet no news for us nor in terms of a sustainable and just peace for Ukraine.
Ihor Dolgov
Source: Alaska Summit: Planned as a historic summit billed as Pursuing Peace, it turned out as usual
