For President Vladimir V. Putin, he described one telephone call by a turning point as any battle in his three -year war.
On Wednesday a lengthy call, President Trump delivered a message For Mr. Putin, who encapsulated it a lot of the Russian leader sees today’s world: that Russia and the United States are two large nations that should directly negotiate the fate of Ukraine and move to solving even more serious global affairs.
It was the brightest sign that Mr. Putin, despite the disastrous failure of Russia at the beginning of his invasion of Ukraine at the beginning of 2022, could still emerge from the war with a revised map of Europe and the spread of Russian influence in it.
The call came on the same day that the Minister of Defense Mr. Trump Pete HegSeth said the United States of the United States would not support the desire of Ukraine for NATO membership. It also came as Senate confirmed TULSI GABBARDwidely considered sympathetic with Mr. Putin, as another director of National Intelligence.
Together, development meant a paycheck for Mr. Putin’s monthly campaign Lavishing praise on Mr. Trump – Apparently in the belief that the US President has the power to supply Russian victories in Ukraine.
“Putin is playing a very smart game,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a head of a Carnegia Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin. “He invests 100 percent in the effort to seduce Trump.”
In Moscow, the news of the long -awaited call was reported by the waves of barely contained joy. The commentators argued that three -year efforts in America have ended with Russia’s isolation. They celebrated Mr. Trump A shining contribution on social media After the call for the “great history of our nations” and noted that the US President spoke to Mr. Putin before calling President Volodymy Green from Ukraine.
One Russian legislature said That the call of Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump “broke the blockade of the west”. Other said That Europeans have certainly read Mr. Trump’s contribution “with horror and cannot believe their eyes”. Third said It was a “day of good news”.
In the sign of optimism explosion, the main index of the Russian stock market jumped 5 percent on Thursday morning to its highest point since last summer and its beaten currency, rubles, won against the dollar to the strongest level since September.
Russian entrepreneurs hope that the peace agreement with Mr. Trump could lead to the sanctions against their country. The Kremlin said Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had touched “bilateral Russian-American relations in the economic sphere” for Ukraine.
Not everyone was happy. Some of the Russian cheerleaders of the war growled on the social media that an agreement with the United States could sell soldiers on the battlefield. A pro-war blog with more than a million followers, two major, cited A warrior who said that the discussion of Wednesday’s call “demoralizes and irritates me”.
Mrs. Stanovaya and many other commentators noted that Mr. Putin’s chances were far from being secured. Especially, while Mr. Trump seems to focus on ending the fighting in Ukraine, Mr. Putin wants a wider agreement with the United States that would push NATO back and allow Russia to recover the sphere of influence in Europe.
“Donald Trump spoke in favor of the fast end of hostility,” Kreml said in his summary summary, indicating this divergence. “Vladimir Putin on his part mentioned the need to eliminate the main causes of the conflict.”
The call is determined by complex negotiations, whose outlines – and participants – are still unclear. Mr Zelena will try to make a case of American support on a meeting with Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and Vice President of JD Vance in Munich.
Mr. Putin is likely to maintain military pressure on Ukraine and at the same time attract Mr. Trump’s ambitions as a peacemaker. Analysts say that what Mr. Putin takes care of is not how many territories he captures in Ukraine; Rather, it wants a more complex agreement that maintains Ukraine outside NATO, limits the size of the Ukrainian army and reduces the presence of Western alliance across Eastern and Central Europe.
Analysts doubt that Mr Putin agrees to stop the fight before receiving the assurance that at least some of these wider requirements will be met.
Ilya Grashchenkov, an analyst of Russian politics based in Moscow, said that the call with Mr. Trump caused Mr. Putin to repeat the doubling at the war of Ukraine “looked like a successful casino bet”.
Russia has absorbed huge losses in Ukraine and gambled, which eventually changed the “global paradigm” and the West would tired the country’s support, Mr. Grashchenkov said in a telephone interview. “This change has occurred, and now it is not clear how this bet will be played in the future.”
Ivan Nenepurenko The report contributed.
