Putin is, yet again, playing Trump.

There is an 'elephant in the room' in UK and EU discussions about the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting.

Indeed, one could say that political discussions reverberating around the world concerning this meeting likewise have an 'elephant in the room'.

Gergana Krastevan (left) has identified this 'elephant in the room' that overshadows the political discussions reverberating around the world concerning the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting..

As she writes in Metro,

"Forget geopolitics or alliances. In the looming negotiations between the US and Russia on Alaskan soil, Donald Trump appears to be backing only one side – his own.
… 
‘He has engaged in this diplomacy not because he believes it is in the US interest, but to get the Nobel Peace Prize or to aggrandize himself… or to distract from [his connection to] the Jeffrey Epstein case.

‘This is the way in which he disorderly makes foreign policy.’" (Metro on MSN: 12 August 2025) (my emphasis)

Konstantin Samoilov (right: cf. also video below) is of the opinion that,

"This meeting in Alaska doesn't make any sense because it wasn't expected by anyone, including myself."

He goes on to point out that,

"The biggest problem of this negotiations is the lack of any kind of guarantee that Russia will not attack Ukraine again" (ibid Konstantin Samoilov)

He also points out that,

"Russia has given many promises many times. Back in 1994 Russia promised to not ever invade Ukraine or take Ukrainian land in return for Ukraine giving up the 'nuclear weapons'. That agreement is called the' 'Budapest Memorandum'." (ibid Konstantin Samoilov) 

 

 Konstantin Samoilov : Inside Russia : 12 August 2025: YouTube

Yet, "Russia violated the Budapest memorandum in 2014 with its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea" (Wikipedia)

European leaders held talks to-day with Ukraine's Zelensky ahead of a Trump-Putin summit on Friday.

After this meeting,

"Merz [said] Europeans are doing everything they can to "help set the agenda" for the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Volodymyr Putin in Alaska. 

"In Alaska, security interests of Europe and Ukraine must be protected," Merz [told] the news conference, a topic he says was discussed with Trump." (BBC News: 13 August 2025) (my emphasis)  

 

James Waterhouse: BBC News: 13 August 2025

Furthermore, recall that,

But unfortunately for BOTH Trump and Vance, Ukraine's President, Volodomyr Zelensky (left), as reported by France 24,

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Saturday to reject any peace plan that involves ceding land to Russia just hours after Washington and Moscow announced a summit aimed at ending the war. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 in Alaska to discuss a possible peace deal." (France 24:  09 August 2025) (my emphasis) (cf. also:blog entry: 11 August 2025)

Both Gergana Krastevan's  reading of the proposed Trump-Putin meeting viz. that it is :-

• 'not because he [Trump] believes it is in the US interest, but to get the Nobel Peace Prize or to aggrandize himself' , 
• and Konstantin Samoilov's puzzlement that, "This meeting in Alaska doesn't make any sense because it wasn't expected by anyone, including myself.",

 remains enigmatic about this Trump-Putin meeting.

Is this proposed Trump-Putin meeting yet another Putin ploy to try to realize his demented Novorossiya dreams?

Is Putin, yet again, playing Trump?  

UPDATE: 13 August 2025: GMT: 19:34

In an interview just 1 hour ago on Times Radio, Cormac Smith (left), former British diplomat to Ukraine, outlines just howTrump,  disorderly makes foreign policy (cf. Gergana Krastevan) 'on the hoof' by, for instance, blaming Zelensky for starting the war in Ukraine, a blame which simply flies in the face of historical truth since Putin's invasion of, and annexation of Crimea into the Russian Federation, by Putin in 2014.

As he says,

"Did I say something about Donald Trump's press conference yesterday (12 August 2025)? 

It was absolutely bizarre. It was like being in a parallel universe. He clearly blamed President Zelensky for starting the war saying that he had spent three and a half years doing nothing. 

He disregarded and disrespected the Ukrainian constitution by saying that, "Zelensky using this as an objection to trading land ... well he didn't have a problem with going to going to war, and a war that killed tens of thousands of people ...

Let's be very very clear, if anyone doesn't know,

•  it was Russia who started this war, an illegal invasion,
• it was Russia who wiped entire Ukranian cities off the map,
• and has murdered tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians"  (Times Radio: 13 August 2025; YouTube)

 

 Times Radio: 13 August 2025; YouTube

Towards the end of his interview, Cormac Smith also raises the issue of how the UK and the EU are now going to respond to Trump's 'bizarre' mindset about the war in Ukraine when he has a meeting with Putin this coming Friday.

 

 

 

(to be continued)