The personal meeting between Trump and Putin will inevitably become a boundary, after which clarity will come, believes Ivan Preobrazhensky.
As reported, the meeting between Putin and Trump will take place next week, the place has also become known - Alaska. Trump called the chances of a meeting first with Putin, and then with the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, high. All this caused a stormy reaction both on the Russian stock exchange and in the media - as if the US had accepted the Kremlin's conditions. But in reality, everything looks exactly the opposite.
Who proposed the meeting?
Even before the arrival in Moscow of the US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump pointed out that his associate had been invited by the Russian authorities. There were also rumors that in order to maintain friendly relations with the White House, the Kremlin might propose an "air truce", i.e., a cessation of missile, bomb, and drone strikes. This sounded strange, since up until that point Russia had been unwilling to make any compromises that would not be in its interest.
Indeed, as far as we can judge from the available information, the Kremlin's idea turned out to be different. In order not to impose secondary sanctions on Trump, for which, as the example with India showed, he is generally ready, Russia proposed a meeting of the presidents. The Americans wanted such a meeting in the winter, then hoped that it would take place in the spring, and in the end, in the summer, they seemed to rule out this possibility. Accordingly, it is not surprising that Trump's statements after communicating with Witkoff were quite optimistic.
In the Soviet television series "The Place of the Meeting Should Not Be Changed" The emphasis is on the irreversibility of the decision made and the inevitability of the operation being carried out. With the meeting between Putin and Trump, things are clearly different. Including because the Russian dictator now finds himself in a significantly weaker position.
A trap for Putin
It should be noted that the Kremlin can lie, as it most likely does. In order to delay Trump's final transition from the group of conditional intermediaries to the unequivocally Putin camp, Moscow hastened to make new proposals in order to drag out the story with the negotiations. It seems that propagandists in Russia have reason to rejoice, and the stock market - to grow. Is Trump bought again?
In fact, the American president has finally achieved what he has been striving for at least since February 2025. Putin himself proposed the meeting and summoned the American representative. The Kremlin is offering some concessions, i.e. bargaining, although this may be an imitation. Now, it is the Russian dictator who finds himself in the role of supplicant.
Will Trump be able to take advantage of this? Considering that his strategy from the beginning was based on forcing direct personal negotiations, the US probably has a plan for response. But right now, the most important thing is not to give Putin the opportunity to first delay the meeting under some plausible pretext and then cancel it. Putin is known to be a big liar and easily reneges on his promises, but this can be much more difficult to do in person than through intermediaries. The meeting could become what is called the "moment of truth".
Will there be a second stage?
The first stage is clear - to get Putin himself to sit at the negotiating table with the understanding that in Russia only he makes the strategic decisions, sometimes alone.
The second stage seems much less likely - to get Putin to sit at the negotiating table with Zelensky. The Russian leader has already stated that for this to happen, the Kremlin's conditions must be met, and there is plenty of time. Accordingly, real peace negotiations are unlikely to happen soon. The Kremlin is still maneuvering.
But everything could change in the coming days if the information circulated by the Polish publication Onet.pl that in Moscow Witkoff proposed that the occupied territories of Ukraine be left under Russian control with "suspended status" for 49 or 99 years, to establish a truce and gradually begin to lift sanctions. This option may satisfy Putin, but for Ukraine it would be tantamount to defeat. And for Trump it does not look like a victory either.
This comment expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and DW as a whole.