For US President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin is a man seeking a retreat from his bloody three-year attack on Ukraine, writes "Reuters".
According to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, however, the Russian leader may be just getting started. If the Alliance does not invest in its defense capabilities, Russia could attack a member country within three years, Rutte warned at the annual NATO summit on Tuesday.
By most measures, this year's NATO summit in The Hague was a success.
Member states largely agreed to the US demand to increase defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product. Trump, who once derided the alliance as a "fraud," said his views had changed as he and Rutte developed a friendship that blossomed after the NATO chief compared the US president to a stern "dad" ruling over his geopolitical subordinates.
The summit, which ended on Wednesday, also highlighted the growing gap between how the US and Europe view the military ambitions of Russia, the alliance's main adversary.
This is despite the fact that some lawmakers from Trump's Republican Party have stepped up their rhetoric in recent weeks, arguing that while the president's ambition to negotiate an end to Russia's war in Ukraine is laudable, it is now clear that Putin is not serious about talks.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that it was "possible" Putin has territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. But he insisted that the Russian leader - hurt by losses in manpower and materiel - wants the war to end quickly.
"I know one thing: he would like to see the conflict resolved," Trump stressed. "He would like to get out of this thing. It's a mess for him."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump's sentiment, saying the U.S. was delaying expanding sanctions on Moscow in part to allow negotiations to continue.
"If we do what everyone here wants us to do - which is to hit them with more sanctions - we're probably going to lose our ability to talk to them about a ceasefire," he said.
The message from others at the summit was radically different.
A senior NATO official said Putin was not really interested in a ceasefire - or in engaging in good faith negotiations at all.
"Regardless of the dynamics on the battlefield, we continue to doubt that Russia has any interest in meaningful negotiations," the official said.
"Russia's ambitions extend beyond control of "certain territories on their administrative borders," as Rubio put it. Instead, Putin is determined to impose his "political will" "to neighboring countries," he warned.
Rutte portrayed the Russian threat as existential.
"If we don't invest now, we are really at risk that the Russians will try something against NATO territory in three, five or seven years," he pointed out.
RUSSIA'S STRATEGY REMAINS UNCLARIFYING
The United States is not the only NATO member with a more optimistic view of Russia.
On Wednesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a longtime Trump ally and critic of European institutions, said that Russia "is not strong enough to pose a real threat to NATO.".
However, as the Alliance's largest donor and most influential member, Washington's position is a central concern in most NATO countries.
A NATO official denied that there were differences of opinion within the Alliance, pointing to a NATO statement on Wednesday that mentioned the "long-term threat posed by Russia".
The Russian Embassy in Washington referred to remarks yesterday by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who criticized NATO for wasting defense money.
"It seems that by simply referring to the fabricated "Russian threat" "It will be possible to explain to ordinary people why their pockets are being emptied again," she quipped.
The lack of a common understanding of Putin's goals will complicate future diplomatic plans to end the war, said Philip Dickinson, deputy director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council and a former British diplomat.
"Achieving a peace agreement is not just something that Trump and Putin can agree on alone," he stressed.
"European involvement is needed. That has to mean that there is some kind of shared understanding among allies about what Putin is trying to achieve," Dickinson added.
He said European leaders probably hadn't given up on trying to change Trump's views on Russia.
However, it was unlikely that they would constantly raise uncomfortable conversations at the NATO summit. The alliance's main goal was simply to get through it without major disruptions, and that goal was achieved, Dickinson said.
Still, peace came at a price - the lack of substantive discussion on Ukraine and Russia was evident, he said.
"The lack of a Russia strategy is a real glaring omission compared to what the summit could have achieved," Dickinson said.