Kyiv, Ukraine – The Alaska summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was a master’s degree in the way a former intelligence officer uses his handling skills on an egocentric narcissist.
This is the impression that a political analyst based in kyiv who closely followed the war with Russia, they told Al Jazeera, after looking at the interaction between Trump and Putin at their summit on Friday, which did not innovate in the warmer war in Europe since 1945.
Putin “worked well (well Trump),” said the analyst who had asked for anonymity, referring to the years that Putin has spent as Soviet Esion in Eastern Germany by recruiting informants.
On the Tarmac in Elmendorf-Richardson, an air base of the Cold War outside the capital of Alaska, Anchorage, Putin praised Trump with a “good morning, dear neighbor”, referring to the proximity of Alaska with northeast of Russia.
Trump literally deployed a red carpet for Putin, gave him a long handshake and a walk in “The Beast”, presidential limousine – and Putin radiated from the rear seat.
During a brief press conference, Putin continued to thank Trump, repeated and reformulated what the American president had said about talks, Ukraine and a possible regulation of peace.
Putin flattered Trump, including by supporting the statements of the American chief – as his assertion that he could have prevented the Ukrainian Russian war if he had won the 2020 presidential vote instead of Joe Biden.
“Today, President Trump said that if he had been president at the time, there would be no war, and I am sure that it would be the case,” Putin smiled at journalists said after the talks. “I can confirm it.”
And it is the manipulation of Putin masterfully disguised the flatterie Saccharine which ended the talks with the conclusion of Trump according to which “there is no agreement before there is an agreement,” said Kucherenko.
“He nourished the narcissist of everything we need to feed a narcissist to manipulate it – endless quotes,” the way the American president said endlessly “, the endless names on subjects (Trump) are interested,” said the analyst, who wrote analytical reports on the military of Russia and addressed to the American Congress.
‘Nothing concrete’
Putin’s remarks at the press conference after the talks lasted eight minutes and included a conference on the moment when Tsarist Russia owned Alaska and how the Soviet and American soldiers joined during the Second World War.
He spoke more than twice as long as Trump, who spoke only for three minutes and admitted that the talks had led to an agreement to keep more talks.
“There were many, many points on which we agreed, most of them, I would say, some great that we are not entirely obtained, but we have made progress. So there is no agreement before there was an agreement,” said the American president.
Trump and Putin also refused to answer questions.
Consequently, the summit ended with “nothing concrete,” said Kucherenko, as Putin said that the “deep causes” of the war should be treated above all ceases or real stages towards a colony of peace.
“In order to make the sustainable and long -term regulations (of future peace), we must eliminate all the main roots, the main causes of this conflict, and we have said on several occasions, to consider all the legitimate concerns of Russia,” said Putin.
“Deep Causes” is Putin’s code to reject the existence of Ukraine outside the political shadow of Moscow and deny its very sovereignty.
The angle of China
However, talks were not a total triumph for Putin, said another Ukrainian observer.
They lasted less than three hours instead of the seven that Russian officials had announced, and there was no broken bread on a joint lunch.
And what was discussed behind closed doors went far beyond the war.
“Russia works through the economy and geopolitics, offers a profit from Trump here and now, and also on the subject of China,” said Igar Tyshkevych, analyst based in kyiv, in Al Jazeera.
“Based on this, the Kremlin is trying to obtain political concessions that could help Russia confirm its ambitions for the status of a geopolitical center,” he said.
“And Ukraine is only a derivative part – an important but derived part – of these processes,” he said.
As the White House wants to prevent the merger of the interests of Moscow and Beijing, Trump finds that it is advantageous to negotiate commercial projects and political interactions with Moscow, said Tyshkevych.
“Consequently, the United States is not interested in a total defeat and a crisis for Russia. Unfortunately for us,” he said.
However, Washington and Beijing will not agree with stimulating Moscow’s geopolitical role in the status of a third world power, so that the White House “partially understands” Putin’s ambitions, he said.
What is the next step?
For Ukraine, all of this means more hostilities and attacks by Russian drones and missiles-while Moscow stimulates the mobilization of men of combat age, he said.
One of the pre -eminent military analysts of Ukraine, for their part, is pessimistic about the results of the summit.
The very fact of a face to face with Trump on American soil means that Putin was “legitimized” and raised to the role of a political pariah, the lieutenant-general Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of the Ukrainian army state, told Al Jazeera.
“He was legitimized in an absolutely unacceptable way” while being “an international bad man who should be held responsible for his actions,” said Romanenko.
“Again, Trump did not keep his promises on sanctions (on Russia), has not reached a position on a cease-fire,” he said.
Ukraine will therefore have to continue his “complicated fight until Trump increases his will and his political will,” said the general.
Russia will accelerate its attempts to unravel the lines of defense of Ukraine in the East and will resume its devastating air strikes with drones and missiles, he said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities will have to make strategic decisions to start a “complete and just” mobilization of age and to concentrate the economy on military needs, said Romanenko.
