Alaska 2025: The Dealmaker Gets Taken in by a KGB Agent
It was billed as a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and the convicted Russian dictator Putin to lay the groundwork for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia but it turned into a slam-dunk victory for Putin.
Trump was played by Putin like a KGB interrogator played an incarcerated dissident.
From the moment Trump and Putin stepped onto the tarmac and greeted each other with a handshake, Putin was in the driver’s seat. The mere fact that an American President, the leader of the free world, welcomed to the United States a convicted war criminal and child molester put Putin in that significant position.
The global media present in Anchorage on August 15 noted several times that the Russian despot had nothing to lose since it was he who was shunned by the international community. Even the slightest gesture in his direction would be seen as a victory to be cheered in the hallowed halls of the Kremlin. But Putin and Russia won even more. Putin is now a player.
As much as journalists tried to show objectivity, the truth about Putin’s career and lawless actions was visible their coverage.
The absence of Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy from a meeting that was deciding his nation’s fate was not omitted from the reporters’ narrative. They pointed out that in the days leading up to the summit and during the talks Russia continued its bloody bombardment of Ukraine with deadly consequences.
Just as the presidents were greeting each other on the Elmendorf Air Force Base tarmac, alerts went out in Ukraine about incoming Russian drones and aircraft — a sign of Putin’s intent to keep up his war, even as Trump was lavishing him with trappings of respect on US soil.
In the post-summit analysis both Trump and Putin offered a vague accounting of a meeting that stretched for hours but didn’t conclude with concrete actions. Journalists said they did not learn anything new about the two presidents’ plans for Ukraine’s future in the wake of the talks, indicating that the pre-summit hoopla and expectations were a waste of time and money.
To quote the late Ukrainian senior diplomat, Hennadiy Udovenko, Alaska 2025 turned out to be a mixture of two great literary creations: “Great Expectations,” “Gone with the Wind.”
“We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,” Trump told reporters. “There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn’t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”
The reference to “most significant” is a veiled attempt to reveal that an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine or at least a ceasefire — the central focus of the preparations — was not discussed.
Consequently, Ukrainians — innocent civilians, men, women and children — have been condemned by Putin and Trump to die every night and every day.
To be sure, Putin’s goal was not a temporary ceasefire. It should be evident to supporters and detractors that Putin doesn’t want a buffer zone made up of captured Ukrainian territory but rather he wants all of Ukraine as some commentators finally pointed out. This imperial goal is what sends shock waves through the spines of all Eastern Europeans, who know well the pain and suffering of Russian subjugation.
In what was touted by the White House as a press conference following their meeting, Trump and Putin took no questions, while ignoring shouted ones from reporters.
Putin spoke little of Ukraine, focusing on the bond and heritage between the US and Russia, while Trump said many points were agreed to, and a few are left, regarding Ukraine. Trump plans to call European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he said.
It was revealed today that Zelenskyy plans to visit the White House on Monday, August 18.
In his address, Putin, who spoke first, accentuated that it was important that Alaska was chosen as the site of the summit because it is part of a common heritage, “common history between Russia and the US, and many positive events have to do with that territory.” But Putin did not mention that Ukrainian Kozaks were forcibly exiled there by the tsars.
Putin praised the summit as being needed because “It is apparent that sooner or later, we have to amend the situation to move on from the confrontation to dialog, and in this case, a personal meeting between the heads of state has been long overdue, naturally, under the condition of serious and painstaking work, and this work has been done.”
He admitted that the reason for this state of affairs is the situation around Ukraine.
“We see the strive of the administration and President Trump personally to help facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, and his strive to get to the crux of the matter, to understand this history, is precious. As I've said, the situation in Ukraine has to do with fundamental threats to our security. Moreover, we've always considered the Ukrainian nation, and I’ve said it multiple times, a brotherly nation. How strange it may sound in these conditions. We have the same roots, and everything that's happening is a tragedy for us, and terrible wound. Therefore, the country is sincerely interested in putting an end to it,” Putin facetiously lamented.
He again overlooked that Russia is the root cause of all pain and suffering that Ukrainians have experienced for centuries. Just recall the massacre of Baturyn, the Holodomor and today’s war. The reason for the bloodshed is Moscow’s age-old mission to subjugate or annihilate Ukrainians.
“At the same time, we’re convinced that in order to, to make the settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict, and we’ve said it multiple times, to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in the world on the whole, and agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that,” the KGB war criminal said.
Russia never cared about the security of Ukraine much less about the welfare of Ukrainians. Ukrainian culture and ecology are also subjects for destruction.
The concept of Russian legitimate concerns is laughable because Ukraine and Europe have never threatened Russia. On the other hand, Russia threatened and threatens all its near and distant neighbors.
Blaming Kyiv and European capitals for the possibility of throwing “a wrench” that would “torpedo” the peace process, Putin insisted that his is the only way to peace. Ukraine must surrender and Europe must turn a blind eye and deaf ear to events in the former captive nations as they set out to become re-subjugated.
As for security guarantees, if Russia is involved, history has shown that they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.
The “primary roots and causes,” in Putin’s words, of the conflicts between East and West, the United States and Russia, Russia and Ukraine, Zelenskyy and Putin are Russia’s voracious, maniacal desire for conquest as a means to build its evil empire.
Eliminate that, eliminate Russian imperialism and peace in Ukraine and Europe will prevail.
