Russia Experts Worry KGB Agent-Turned-Murderous Dictator Putin Will Play Trump

As President Donald Trump heads to Alaska to meet with the KGB agent-turned-dictator for whom he has long held a fawning admiration, Russia experts worry that the big loser will be Ukraine, the neighbour Vladimir Putin invaded three and a half years ago.“There’re lots of ways this can go wrong,” said Fiona Hill, a Russia analyst on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term. “I’m kind of worried about the fact that it’s supposed to be a one-on-one.”Trump is traveling to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage for the meeting with Putin, with the stated goal of ending the bloodshed caused by Russia’s invasion. It will be Trump’s first meeting with Putin, now widely considered a war criminal, since he returned to office in January. Putin would face arrest travelling to most countries and needed a waiver of US sanctions to set foot on American soil.Trump’s summit, though, was hastily scheduled with little groundwork, apart from meetings conducted by his friend from his New York real estate days, Steve Witkoff, whose last trip generated confusion after Witkoff apparently misunderstood Putin’s demands.“I think that the main thing to watch is whether Putin is able to use his KGB training to bring Trump back under his spell,” said John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser at the time of his only previous summit with Putin in 2018. “And they can get back to being Vladimir and Donald, the good friends that Trump thought they were until they couldn’t get a ceasefire out of Putin for the first six months of this term.”How much Trump actually pushes Putin to end his slaughter in Ukraine remains to be seen. In the days following the invasion in February 2022, Trump called Putin a “genius” and “savvy” for having done so. As former President Joe Biden pulled together a coalition to help Ukraine, Trump instead began blaming Biden and claiming that Putin never would have invaded had Trump remained in office.For most of last year, Trump promised he would end the war on the day he returned to the White House or even before. Two hundred and seven days later, Russia’s assault continues, with missile and drone attacks on civilians only getting deadlier and more frequent.Only in recent weeks has Trump acknowledged the brutality of Russia’s attacks. He did so again on Wednesday when asked if he thought he could persuade Putin to stop. Trump responded that he thought he had made that case to Putin several times now, only to see yet more bombardments that night.“So I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation,” he told reporters during a visit to the Kennedy Center.U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a news conference in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders of America’s European allies, meanwhile, tried to head off potential disaster by preemptively arranging a call with Trump on Wednesday to warn him that Putin’s word has little value.“It’s [the] most important thing that Europe convinces Donald Trump that one can’t trust Russia,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters after the call with Trump.Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said leaders “made it clear that Ukraine must be at the table as soon as follow-up meetings take place.”“Trump has already given Putin the gift of a meeting with the president of the United States in the United States,” said Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and now a professor at Stanford University. “I hope Trump has a strategy for getting something in return. So far, I see little evidence that he does have a strategy. Eager to be proved wrong on Friday.”For Trump, though, the fact that he is having a summit with an autocratic leader could well be more important than any particular result.Trump was dazzled by the reception he received when he visited China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing in November 2017, gushing over the food, his trip to the Forbidden City, the military display. “My feeling towards you is incredibly warm,” he told Xi. “You’re a very special man.”For years, Trump boasted that he was the first U.S. president to meet with North Korea’s dictator in 2018. He proudly displayed a photo in the West Wing of himself shaking hands with Kim Jong Un after Trump subsequently traveled to the DMZ during a trip to South Korea. After he lost reelection in 2020, Trump took the photo with him and hung it in a restaurant at his Trump Tower in Manhattan.“He enjoys palling around with them. He thinks Xi Jinping is a friend,” Bolton said. “After the first meeting in Singapore with Kim Jong Un, Trump said they fell in love.”Trump similarly sought out a one-on-one meeting with Putin during his first term, even though there was no agreement or even a framework to finalize — the customary prerequisites for a summit. At the end of that meeting in Helsinki, Trump infamously declared he believed Putin, a trained Soviet-era spy, over his own intelligence agencies about Russia’s work to help him win the 2016 election. He enjoys palling around with them. He thinks Xi Jinping is a friend.John Bolton, former national security adviser for Donald TrumpTrump’s claim that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine in a single day stemmed from his view that he “got along great” with both Zelenskyy and Putin — a questionable assertion, at best.While Trump has been trying to curry favour with Putin since at least 2013, when he was hosting a beauty pageant in Moscow — “Will he become my new best friend?” Trump wrote on social media — there is no evidence Putin respects Trump.Indeed, heading into the Alaska meeting, Putin openly insulted Trump and the United States generally by awarding an Order of Lenin medal to a CIA official whose son was killed in Ukraine while fighting for Russia. The 21-year-old suffered from mental health problems, and that medal has been obsolete since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.Putin’s government also announced this week that the only way to end the war was for Ukraine to give it all the territory that Russia has been unable to take by force after 42 months of trying.And Trump’s relationship with Zelenskyy began with his attempt to extort him into announcing an investigation into then-candidate Biden, withholding congressionally approved military aid as leverage. Trump was ultimately impeached for his actions, but remained in office because all but one Republican senator voted not to remove him.Trump has ever since then disparaged Zelenskyy, at one point even calling the democratically elected leader a “dictator.”Even if Trump’s personal views toward Putin and Zelenskyy did not complicate matters, Bolton said he wonders what purpose a meeting with Putin serves right now.“The Russians understand force, and right now, Putin is being told he’s winning on the battlefield, and I think by at least some metric, he is,” he said. “The only way to get the Russians to negotiate seriously is to do more to show that their military position in Ukraine is weak, to show that if they don’t negotiate, Ukraine is going to win the war.”

Comments

Breaking news

Full list of Claire’s shops that could close as retailer falls into administration

Metro

Comments

Similar News

Franklin Graham — Pray God Gives Trump Wisdom with Putin to End Russia-Ukraine War: 'Today Is the Day'

Russia-linked DHL warehouse fire in Birmingham left Amazon container ‘100% destroyed’

Hillary Clinton says she'll nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize if Russia-Ukraine deal materializes

Ukrainian civilians held captive in Russia since 2014 released in huge exchange

Pope Leo XIV prays for peace as US-Russia summit over Ukraine war gets underway

Why Russia Sold Alaska to the U.S.

What to expect from historic Trump-Putin Alaska summit over Ukraine-Russia ceasefire

Satellite Images Show How Ukraine Territory Has Changed During Russia War

America's F-22 Faces Off Against Russia's Rival Su-57 For First Time

China, Russia Help Iran Challenge West

How Russia is preparing for conflict in Nato’s new Arctic battleground

Donbas: Why Russia is desperate to capture eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland

Russia's master negotiator knows Trump's weaknesses and will try to exploit them

Reports: Russia’s Revamped Wagner Group Suffers ‘Disaster’ Defeat by Mali Jihadis

Past US-Russia summits required detailed preparation - but will Trump surprise us all?

Over Half of Americans Don't Trust Trump on Ukraine, Russia War: Poll

Russia Says Trump Talks to Focus on 'Long-Term' Solution for Ukraine

Trade envoy's trip to Cyprus 'is like visiting Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine'

Russia and Ukraine Agree: A Trump Summit Is a Big Win for Putin

Donald Trump insists Putin 'is not going to mess around with me' as he prepares for Alaska meeting... while Russia readys its new cruise missile nuke for tests

Breaking news

Full list of Claire’s shops that could close as retailer falls into administration

Unruly flyer is ‘picked up like a child’ and restrained by fellow passenger

Trump lands in Alaska for crunch Ukraine summit

Feds say migrants at ICE facility in Manhattan can’t have toothbrushes because they can be ‘improvised as weapons’

Verdict and sentencing for Brazil's Bolsonaro is set for early September

Photos of mourners and searches for the missing from flash floods in Pakistan and India

Brooklyn construction magnate gets probation for funneling illegal donations to NYC Mayor Eric Adams

Firefighters still battling North York Moors blaze with houses 30 miles away affected

OAN’s Matt Gaetz apologizes for using AI-generated fakes of women soldiers in female military recruitment segment

Putin stops off at fish factory on way to Alaska for crunch Trump meeting

Deadly ‘sloth virus’ detected in UK for first time as health watchdog issues urgent warning

Hero fisherman pulls woman to safety after she jumped from Louisiana bridge

Afghans brought to safety in UK have personal details leaked in fresh Ministry of Defence breach

Influencer ‘XenaThe Witch’ arrested after shooting stranger with a paintball gun for live stream prank

Hours before interviewing Patel and Bondi, Hannity bragged he wouldn’t ask about Epstein. He stayed true to his word

Dramatic video shows hiker airlifted to safety after two days trapped behind waterfall

Bioethanol plant deems lack of Government support an ‘act of economic self-harm’

Lawyers say immigrants battling medical emergencies and disease at Alligator Alcatraz: ‘I don’t want to die in here’

FTSE eases on weak US data as Ukraine peace summit looms

Who is Gavin Newsom? The trolling Democrat feuding with Donald Trump

Russia-linked DHL warehouse fire in Birmingham left Amazon container ‘100% destroyed’

One dead and another missing after boat crashes near Portsmouth

Russia Experts Worry KGB Agent-Turned-Murderous Dictator Putin Will Play Trump

Why A Former Labour Councillor's Acquittal By A Jury Is Not 'Two-Tier Justice'

And Just Like That Boss Explains Why The Finale Had To Include That 1 Gross-Out Scene

Parts of Manhattan covered in black smoke after apartment fire leads to massive emergency response

Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem gets sizzle reel of her cosplay stunts to mark 200 days in office

New Hampshire man accused of fatally shooting his sister-in-law and nephews pleads guilty

Michelle Yeoh brings Chinese blockbuster 'Ne Zha 2' to life in English dub

Richard Thomas dons wig and mustache to play icon Mark Twain in one-man play touring the US

Trump officials wanted to give Musk’s xAI a huge contract. Staffers had to explain Grok had just praised Hitler

Ministers spent £2.4m fighting to keep huge Afghan data breach a secret

Trump team has created a secret list ranking companies on how loyal they are

Queen Camilla wipes away tear as veteran pays tribute to King’s cancer battle

Bioethanol plant deems lack of Government support an ‘act of economic self-harm’

Florida mom ‘lucky to be alive’ after miscarrying due to raw milk consumption, she says in lawsuit

Michigan football fined 10s of millions of dollars, Moore suspended 3 games in sign-stealing scandal

How to get your AT&T settlement

Watch live: Trump and Putin hold high stakes Ukraine summit in Alaska

Desperate search underway for missing Arkansas teen as family fears foul play

Hillary Clinton says she’d nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize if he helps broker a deal to end Ukraine war

Serbia's protesters accuse police of brutality as they prepare to rally again on Friday

Far-right Israeli minister confronts long-imprisoned Palestinian leader

What is a sonic boom? Loud bang heard over Essex

Shoppers left 'pleasantly surprised' by budget Android phone as it drops to £89

Stirling Highland Games set to open doors on traditional family fun event

Free September gardening workshops for all ages at Dobbies Sandyholm

French family are 30,000th visitors to Trossachs attraction in just one year

Man struggled to eat sandwich at work and only has six months to live

Bridge of Allan street to close again for final repairworks after reopening following two year closure

Man charged with attempted murder after 'gunshots fired' on Edinburgh street

New York 'explosion' horror as black smoke surrounds Manhattan after 'blast'

Special Bannockburn rugby fundraiser aims to spread message of inclusivity

Thugs caged for 101 years after 'gangland' attacks left man with hand 'hanging off' and prison cars torched

Predator who sexually assaulted two women as they lay next to him in his bed jailed for 16 months

Major search after man goes missing in river

Second suspect appears in court charged with man's murder and robbery