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AS POLITICAL theatre goes, it does not get more dramatic than this. At a remote military base among snowy mountains in Alaska, Donald Trump, 79, will today meet with Vladimir Putin, 72, the first known meeting between an American president and a Russian leader on US soil in a decade and the first since Moscow launched its Ukraine invasion. Will August 15 go down in history as the day peace was brokered?
The signs are not encouraging. The Trump administration has flip-flopped on just about every element of the Anchorage summit. Will there be “land swapping?” Will there be a second gathering? Is the plan to strike a deal or just to listen? One minute, Mr Trump suggests one thing. The next, the opposite. Heck, it was not long ago he was describing his unhappiness with Mr Putin and throwing expletives in the Russian leader’s direction. Today, he rolls out a red carpet.
But as fraught as the US president’s positions on this conflict and Mr Putin have been, and as complex as the military operations on Ukraine’s eastern border currently are, in which Russia is gaining, a simple truth emerges. Few leaders have done more for Mr Putin than Mr Trump.
Actions speak louder than words.
Since returning to the White House, Mr Trump has imposed no new sanctions on Russia. That country was excluded from tariffs, while Ukraine was slapped with ten per cent. Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in February humiliated by the American leader and his vice president, JD Vance, in the Oval Office.
A one-on-one meeting in the Vatican in the wake of the death of Pope Francis appeared to have marked a turning point. But in recent days, the White House seems to have reverted to February’s lopsidedness. Mr Trump threatened “significant” sanctions against Russia if no peace deal was brokered by August 8. That came and went. Instead of punishing Mr Putin, who is wanted by the ICC for war crimes, America’s leader rewards him with a tête-à-tête.
Speaking eloquently of the reformed global order wrought by the current occupant of the Oval Office is the exclusion of Mr Zelenskyy and European leaders from the table at Anchorage. This, even as the EU has committed over US$212 billion in assistance to Ukraine, just as much, if not more than, US support of US$180 billion.
Any peace brokered under these conditions will come at a steep price. Mr Putin has nothing to lose and everything to gain. From Alaska, which was once Russian territory, he will be able to glance at Siberia. Mr Trump, embroiled in scandals at home, promised to end this conflict on day one. It’s been over 200 days. The world awaits.
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