The meeting in Budapest will strengthen Moscow's position: Trump will choose a "gingerbread" for Putin, - Bloomberg
The first meeting between Trump and Putin, which took place in Alaska in August, did not bring any breakthrough in the settlement of the war. Despite this, after a two-hour phone conversation with the Russian leader, Trump confirmed his readiness to hold a new summit. The US president refused to comment on the possibility of providing Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles or the introduction of new sanctions against Russia. "We need Tomahawks for the United States of America as well.
So I don't know what we can do about that," he told reporters in the Oval Office. The Kremlin said Putin warned Trump against transferring missiles to Ukraine, saying it would "cause serious damage to relations between our countries. " President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is planning a meeting with Trump already this week. Kyiv hopes that the American leader's frustration with Putin's behavior could prompt the White House to increase pressure on Moscow through arms and energy sanctions.
However, Bloomberg analysts warn that Trump may choose "a gingerbread man, not a whip. " Historian Serhiy Radchenko of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies called the second meeting without pressure "an almost reckless move. " "I see a lot of efforts towards dialogue. But I don't see maximum pressure yet," Radchenko said. Researcher Maria Snegova from the Center for Strategic and International Studies also believes that Putin is buying time.
"He is delaying the delivery of critical weapons to Ukraine and the implementation of energy sanctions that Trump promised," she said. According to experts, Budapest can become "friendly territory" for negotiations with Putin, but for Western allies it is a warning signal. "If the meeting ends without concrete results, Putin will be able to send a signal to the world that he is in control of the situation," warned Celeste Wallander, an expert at the Center for a New American Security.
According to Trump, the summit in Budapest may take place within the next two weeks. Prior to that, a meeting of high-ranking delegations of Russia and the USA is planned under the chairmanship of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. As Focus reported, US President Donald Trump expects that during a meeting with him on October 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi will raise the issue of the supply of Tomahawk missiles.