Russian commentators and officials bragged about the perceived coup of Vladimir Putin getting a summit in Alaska Friday with President Donald Trump over a potential Ukraine War ceasefire. <\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s the first time that a Russian leader has been invited to American soil outside of the United Nations since 2007, and comes without the Kremlin having made any apparent concessions amid its war of aggression in Ukraine. <\/a><\/p>\n Just days before the summit was announced, Trump was sharing his anger at Putin\u2019s consistent bombing of Ukraine and threatened to increase sanctions on Russia. The sudden decision to meet with the Russian leader prompted European and Ukrainian officials to scramble to respond to the new arrangement. <\/a><\/p>\n One of the top interlocutors between the Kremlin and the Trump administration<\/a> is Russia\u2019s special economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who argued that the decision to have the meeting in Alaska was symbolically significant. The U.S. bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, roughly two cents per acre. <\/p>\n \u201cBorn as Russian America \u2014 Orthodox roots, forts, fur trade <\/a>\u2014 Alaska echoes those ties and makes the U.S. an Arctic nation,\u201d he said on X. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Putin and Trump are set to meet in Alaska on Friday (Reuters)<\/p>\n Konstantin Malofeyev is a billionaire who the Obama administration sanctioned for funding separatists in Ukraine backed by the Kremlin and interfering in elections in a number of countries. <\/p>\n He claimed Alaskans \u201crespectfully remember their Russian past and their Orthodox present.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexander Kots, a war correspondent supportive of the Kremlin, said in his Telegram channel that \u201cThe meeting in Alaska has every chance to become historic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is, of course, if the West does not try to pull off another scheme,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, analysts in the West urged caution. Michael McFaul served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration. <\/p>\n \u201cTrump has chosen to host Putin in a part of the former Russian Empire,\u201d he said on X. \u201cWonder if he knows that Russian nationalists claim that losing Alaska, like Ukraine, was a raw deal for Moscow that needs to be corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe symbolism of holding the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska is horrendous \u2014 as though designed to demonstrate that borders can change, land can be bought and sold,\u201d said King\u2019s College London Russian Politics professor Sam Greene, according to The Washington Post<\/a>. \u201cNever mind that mainstream Russian discourse maintains a claim that Alaska should be returned to Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n While Czar Alexander II offered up Alaska for sale, Putin has taken Ukrainian territory by force via the unlawful annexation of Crimea<\/a> in 2014 and the subsequent full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, when he illegally claimed to annex four regions of Ukraine. <\/p>\n Russia analysts told The Post that it\u2019s unlikely that the Kremlin has left behind any of its goals for Ukraine, such as demilitarization, the replacement of the current regime with a pro-Russia one, and for Ukraine not to join NATO<\/a>. <\/p>\n A senior fellow with the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, Tatiana Stanovaya, said Trump \u201cdidn\u2019t want to fall into confrontation with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTrump himself said that further sanctions probably wouldn\u2019t force Putin to change his mind. We could see from these signals that Trump could be open to a new attempt, and he did so just days before the end of his ultimatum,\u201d Stanovaya added. <\/p>\n The deputy head of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Janis Kluge, told The Post that Putin\u2019s proposal is \u201cpart of the war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a temporary ceasefire in exchange for land,\u201d said Kluge. \u201cIt is meant to give Putin an advantage in the longer run against Ukraine and the West.\u201d<\/p>\n A former top Kremlin official told the paper that Russia appeared willing to compromise, as it indicated that it was ready for a ceasefire. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Zelensky has warned that he won\u2019t give up land ahead of Trump-Putin meeting (Volodymyr Zelensky)<\/p>\n \u201cPolitically, it is easier [for the Kremlin] to continue the war until Ukraine\u2019s final collapse than to make peace,\u201d the anonymous official said. \u201cThis is why they are clinging on to the idea that there needs to be a temporary but not permanent truce \u2014 and then in the meantime [Ukrainian] elections can be conducted.\u201d<\/p>\n While the Kremlin has pushed for a friendly regime in Kyiv<\/a>, Ukrainians have often demonstrated their wish for free and fair elections and a democratic future as part of the European Union<\/a>. <\/p>\n Pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov said, \u201cRussian troops are not going to make any step backward,\u201d as part of a deal to reach a ceasefire. <\/p>\n![\"Putin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/FILE-PHOTO-FILE-PHOTO-U-S--President-Donald-Trump-and-Russias-President-Vladimir-Putin-talk-during-t.jpeg\")
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