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Fox News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Vladimir Putin to return to US for the first time in a decade
Russian President Vladimir Putin will return to the U.S. for the first time in a decade when he meets with President Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday. Following Trump's announcement last week that the pair would be meeting for an in-person summit – marking the first time a U.S. president will meet with Putin after he invaded Ukraine in 2022, less than a year after he met with Biden in 2021 in Geneva – several locations were suspected as being the most likely meeting places, including Hungary, Switzerland, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. It was reported that Putin shot down the idea of Italy, as it is seen as being favorable to Ukraine, and instead pushed for Hungary. However, Trump surprised the nation when he announced on Friday that Putin would instead be traveling to Alaska for his first U.S. trip since he attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 2015, when he met with then-President Barack Obama. On Monday, Trump said he thought it was "very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country as opposed to us going to his country or even a third-party place." It is unclear why a third-party nation like the UAE was not selected. Though the justification for why Hungary was not selected – despite being led by Viktor Orbán who is friendly with both Putin and Trump – could be because it is a member of NATO and would likely prove controversial should a NATO ally host the Kremlin chief at a time when Europe faces its greatest threat since World War II. Similarly, dubious optics could be attributed to not hosting the meeting in Switzerland, which, though not a NATO ally, is a member of the International Criminal Court which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in 2023 over accusations of war crimes. "They probably avoided Europe, because if they included Europe, then Europe would have demanded that they're actually at the table," Dan Hoffman, former CIA Moscow Station chief, told Fox News Digital. "Probably your two choices were go to Russia – which Trump would never do – or invite him here. "It also exposes the challenge that you can't solve this without Ukraine and without Europe," he added. While it remains unclear where exactly the pair will meet, or why Alaska was ultimately landed on, Alaska's senior Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said it was "another opportunity for the Arctic to serve as a venue that brings together world leaders to forge meaningful agreements." "While I remain deeply wary of Putin and his regime, I hope these discussions lead to genuine progress and help end the war on equitable terms," she added, noting her concern when it comes to dealing with Putin. Russian officials appeared to take a more optimistic tone about the location of the meeting when Russia's special economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev took to X to acknowledge the historical role Alaska has played in the Russia-U.S. relationship. "Born as Russian America — Orthodox roots, forts, fur trade — Alaska echoes those ties and makes the U.S. an Arctic nation," Dmitriev said, later describing it as the "perfect stage" for the meeting. Hoffman argued that the location is not hugely significant and said, "What's going to matter is what they talk about. The details of the meeting more than the venue. "No one can predict what's going to happen. I don't even think Trump or Putin knows what's going to result from this," he added, noting there were too many variables to start predicting or analyzing any element of the upcoming talks. Trump wouldn't detail what he specifically hopes to get out of the talks with Putin on Friday, though he argued he'd be able to tell within the first "two minutes" whether a ceasefire deal in Ukraine was even possible. "I'm not going to make a deal. It's not up to me to make a deal," he said. I think a deal should be made for both [Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy]. "I'd like to see a ceasefire. I'd like to see the best deal that could be made for both parties. You know, it takes two to tango," he added. Trump said he would relate the details of the conversation to both Zelenskyy and European leaders immediately following the meeting. "We're going to see what he has in mind," Trump said of his upcoming meeting with the Kremlin chief. "And if it's a fair deal, I'll reveal it to the European Union leaders and to the NATO leaders, and also to President Zelenskyy – I think out of respect I'll call him first. "I may say, 'lots of luck, keep fighting' or I may say, 'we can make a deal'," Trump concluded.
Fox News
23-04-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Trump insists Ukraine-Russia peace deal is close, but mistrust in Putin leaves experts skeptical
President Donald Trump this week said he is "very" optimistic that Ukraine and Russia will enter into some sort of deal in the coming days, but security experts are still sounding the alarm that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want peace. A feeling of geopolitical whiplash is surrounding Washington after the Trump administration last week said it would abandon peace efforts if a ceasefire cannot be secured, though days later Trump said there is a "very good chance" a deal will be reached this week. The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital's questions about what it would mean should the U.S. walk away from one of Trump's top campaign trail issues: ending the war in Ukraine. The administration also has not clarified if Washington would take retaliatory measures against Putin, as Trump threatened to do last month. "Simply because Trump hasn't announced any consequences yet does not mean that he doesn't plan on taking some anti-Russia measures," former DIA intelligence officer and Russia expert Rebekah Koffler told Fox News Digital. "Trump almost certainly intends for his economic warfare against China to serve as an example to Putin how far Trump is willing to go to compel his adversaries to his will." "But unlike the China case, there's no similar dependence between the U.S. and Russia. Trump's decision on Russia is much more complicated, more risky and requires more thought," she added. "He may or may not take draconian economic steps against Russia, as Putin may take devastating, non-kinetic actions against the U.S. "It's Trump's risk tolerance vs. Putin's now," Koffler said. "And both like to win and both have risk tolerance way above average." The White House did not respond to questions by Fox News Digital on whether the U.S. would still aid Ukraine in some capacity, particularly given recent restrictions on military aid Trump has implemented on Kyiv, like refusing to sell Patriot missiles previously used to defend civilian populations from Russian strikes and that cost $1.5 billion a piece. "If we want to be a global superpower, and we want to deter aggression, not with U.S. troops on the ground, but in general, to deter aggression because it is good for our national security, then we should continue to support Ukraine," former CIA Moscow Station Chief Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital. "It's a tiny percentage of the Department of Defense budget." "The return on investment is pretty high," he added, referring to the $66.5 billion in military assistance Washington has provided Kyiv since Russia's February 2022 invasion, compared to the $841.4 billion defense budget congressionally approved for 2024 alone, a figure which Trump has pushed to increase. A Ukrainian delegation was set to meet with Trump administration officials in London on Wednesday alongside other European partners, including representatives from the U.K., France and Germany. Special envoy Steve Witkoff is reportedly set to return to Moscow this week to continue negotiations with Russian officials, though the Kremlin has not indicated they are anywhere near agreeing to ceasefire terms, let alone a peace deal. A spokesperson for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday reportedly said the issue of Russia's invasion was too "complex" to achieve a quick fix and warned against rushing into a deal. "It is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short time frame," he said. The Kremlin's position has given credence to repeated warnings from security experts that Putin is not interested in securing a peace deal with Ukraine. "There's no indication that Putin wants to stop the war," Hoffman said. "That isn't surprising. Because for a war to end, somebody has to win or both sides have to be so tired they can't continue to fight. "Russia is the invader, so you have to stop them in order to have an end of the war," he added. "The one consistent thing here is Putin is continuing to fight. His objective is to overthrow the government in Ukraine. He's going to keep fighting until he feels like he has accomplished that goal or he can't fight anymore." Koffler echoed Hoffman's position: "Putin will be pursuing the same strategy regardless of Trump's actions; that is continuing the war of attrition until Ukraine capitulates or is completely destroyed and the government collapses." "Putin would like to string Trump along and will continue to try doing so," she added. A report by the Moscow Times on Tuesday cited sources close to Putin and said the Kremlin chief is looking to reorder the global "spheres of influence" by negotiating leverage points between the U.S. and adversaries like Iran and North Korea. The article claimed that Putin would attempt to get Trump to either force a less-than-desirable deal for Ukraine or potentially stop the U.S. from aiding Kyiv by proposing personally enticing deals, like allowing Trump to build a hotel in Moscow, and geopolitical wins, like securing a nuclear agreement with Iran and a "peace deal" in Ukraine. Fox News Digital could not verify the report's claims, but Koffler agreed it could be a strategy that Putin is looking to employ as the U.S. pushes deals across Europe and the Middle East. "He could promise Trump not to share certain sensitive technologies to these two [nations]," Koffler said. "And he could convince Iran not to operationalize and weaponize its nuclear program in exchange for Trump's promise not to target Iran's nuclear facilities in a kinetic strike and to lift sanctions from Russia. "The important aspect of all of this is to give these adversaries face-saving opportunities, which is not a strong point for the U.S. style of diplomacy," Koffler said. "But Putin's ability to convince Trump and Trump's decision calculus are two different things."
