Putin Trump Meeting: What do the leaders of Russia and the US want to get with their summit in Alaska

The recognition by the most powerful country in the world, the United States, that Western efforts to isolate the Kremlin leader have failed.

The fact that this high -level meeting is being held is proof of this, as is the joint press conference announced by the Kremlin.

The Moscow government can argue that Russia has returned to the top of world politics.

“Goodbye to isolation!” Moskovsky Komsomolets Earlier this week.

Putin has not only achieved a summit between the United States and Russia, but also a privileged location for her. Alaska has a lot to offer to Kremlin.

First, security. At its closest point, Continental Alaska is only 90 km from Chukotka, Russia. Vladimir Putin can get there without flying over “hostile” nations.

Secondly, it is far away, far from Ukraine and Europe. This fits the determination of the Kremlin to marginalize Kyiv's leaders and the EU, and negotiate directly with the United States.

There is also a historical symbolism. The fact that the Tsarist Russia sold Alaska to the United States in the nineteenth century is being used by Moscow to justify its attempt to change borders by force in the 21st century.

“Alaska is a clear example that state borders can change and that large territories can change the owner,” the newspaper wrote Moskovsky Komsomolets.

But Putin wants more than international recognition and symbols.

He wants victory. He has insisted that Russia keep all the territory that has confiscated and occupied in four Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporiyia and Jersón) and that Kyiv retires from the parts of those regions that are still under Ukrainian control.

For Ukraine, this is unacceptable. “The Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupant,” said the president of the country, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Kremlin knows it. But if you get Trump's support for your territorial demands, it is estimated that Ukraine's rejection could result in Trump withdrawing all support for Kyiv. Meanwhile, Russia and the United States would continue to drive their relationships and develop economic cooperation.

But there is another scenario.

The Russian economy is under pressure. The budget deficit increases and oil and gas exports income decrease.

If economic problems are pressing Putin to put an end to war, Kremlin could give.

For now, there are no indications of this, since the Russian authorities continue to insist that Russia has the initiative on the battlefield.

Trump promised during his 2024 presidential campaign that ending war in Ukraine would be easy and could do it in a matter of days.

This promise has weighed the efforts of the US president to resolve the conflict, since he has alternated his frustration with the Ukrainians and the Russians since his return to the White House in January.

In February, he strongly criticized Zelensky in a dramatic meeting at the White House and subsequently suspended military aid and the exchange of intelligence with the nation devastated by war.

In recent months, he has been more critical of Putin's intransigence and his willingness to attack civil objectives, establishing a series of deadlines for new sanctions against Russians and other nations that trade with them.

Last Friday was the most recent deadline, and as in all the previous ones, Trump ended up reversing.

He now receives the Russian president on American soil and speaks of “land exchange”, something that Ukraine Teme can consist of concessions of territory in exchange for peace.

Thus, any discussion about what Trump wants during his Friday conversations with Putin is tarnished by the president's vacilating statements and actions.

This week, Trump has made a concerted effort to lower the expectations of this meeting, perhaps a tacit recognition of the limited possibilities that are really an advance without having the presence of one of the two parts in the war.

On Monday, he said the summit would be a tanteo meeting. He suggested that he would know if he could reach an agreement with the Russian leader “probably in the first two minutes.”

“Maybe I go and wish him good luck, and there he will end,” he added. “Maybe he says this is not going to be resolved.”

On Tuesday, the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, reinforced this message, qualifying the summit as a “listening session.”

With Trump, it is often better to expect the unexpected. Zelensky and European leaders spoke with him on Wednesday to make sure that he did not reach an agreement with Putin that Ukraine will not accept, or cannot accept.

However, one thing has been clear practically all year: Trump would welcome the opportunity to be he who puts an end to war.

In his inaugural speech, he said that he wanted his most important legacy to be a “pacifier.” It is no secret that he yearns for the international recognition of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump is not one of those who border on details. But if he is presented with the opportunity to say that he has advanced towards peace during the conversations in Anchorage, he will take advantage of it.

Putin, always a skilled negotiator, could look for a way that Trump does precisely that, under the conditions of Russia, of course.

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