Vladimir Putin’s annual press conference, held on Friday, was, as always, a superb factory of fake news spread by the “general director” himself: Russia is doing well economically, the Russian people are living in a fairytale thanks to the remarkable efforts of the government, the army is flourishing, Russia has not started any war in Ukraine, the Europeans want war instead, and Zelensky staged a coup d’etat and the examples may go on as the conference lasted for several hours. In Russia the official truth has variable geometry.
But what deserves attention first of all is not the lies Putin spread at home – as this is part of his regime’s everyday life – but the way in which Putin placed on Trump’s shoulders all the responsibility that actually lies with the dictator, both for the roots causes of the war and for the chances of success in the current peace negotiations.
In Putin’s words (in Romanian – HERE, in English – HERE), this is what absolving Moscow of any responsibility looks and sounds like:
- << President Trump is making serious efforts to end this conflict. He does it with complete sincerity.
- Moreover, at our meeting with President Trump in Anchorage, we agreed and practically accepted President Trump’s proposals. Therefore, to say that we reject something is completely false and has no basis.
- At the preliminary meetings in Moscow, we were made proposals and asked to make certain compromises. When we arrived in Anchorage, we said that these would not be easy decisions for us and that we agree with the proposed compromises. >>
Among the above, the center of gravity falls on the underlined passage, in which the dictator conveys to the world that the current discussions are flimsy since everything had actually been nailed down at the Alaska summit, when Putin had asked for the maximum possible, and Trump approved the maximum requested.
Even if, from the perspective of any traditional US ally, as well as from the perspective of the historical position of the US towards Russia, Europe and NATO, the state of affairs presented on Friday by Putin sounds perverse itself (Putin asked for everything, Trump approved what Putin asked for), there is still an even more perverse aspect than that. And this even more perverse aspect lies in the way Putin packaged the story: “in Anchorage, we agreed and practically accepted President Trump’s proposals.”
So, it follows not only that Russia is still counting today, as it did in Anchorage, on satisfying its well-known maximalist claims in order to accept the end of the war in Ukraine, but also that, in Anchorage, Russia’s maximalist claims were formulated not by Putin, but by the American president himself: “I agreed and practically accepted President Trump’s proposals”.
By now, from Trump’s behavior, statements, and peace negotiation strategy, it has become clear that he is guilty of embracing the Kremlin’s perspective. However, it has not been clear that Trump would have taken the unimaginable step of being much more than “just” an echo of Putin’s voice.
Of course, so far all we have is only the perspective presented by the Russian dictator. It is interesting if and how the White House will comment on it.
Given the fact that the Moscow dictator lies the way he breathes, it cannot be excluded that we are witnessing a new wave of fake news from him.
But no less true is the fact that the American president’s discernment regarding the war in Ukraine and security in Europe seems atrophied enough that you can safely suspect him of being capable even of what the Russian dictator told at Friday’s marathon conference.
The memoirs of a former Trump aide, such as John Bolton, his former national security adviser in his first term, as well as various press revelations in recent years only reinforce fears about such a possibility.
Throughout this first year of his second term, Donald Trump has been systematically held in check by the dictator he sincerely admires, Vladimir Putin.
No peace initiative taken by the American leader escaped unscathed by Russia’s subsequent reaction. No step towards peace taken by the Trump administration has been exempt from prior pressure from Moscow, aimed at directing the step that the Trump administration was going to take “correctly” and from the outset.
And in this context, during 2025, peace has never been a real prospect for what is happening in Ukraine.
Donald Trump is a leader (business, political and country) who is extremely capricious, extremely self-centered, extremely oriented towards satisfying his own whims and his own self – regardless of the objective context, regardless of what is actually possible, regardless of what, from the perspective of America’s interest, should be.
And yet, when it comes to Russia, more precisely, when it comes to what Putin wants, this whole subjective Trump-branded dictatorship suddenly fades, sinks deep, disappears as if it had not been.
Perhaps the archives will clarify in the future what currently seems inexplicable.
But until then, long enough in the future when some of us won’t be there anymore, you’re going to die of curiosity about what the Trump-led White House says (if it does) about what Putin said on Friday that would happened in Anchorage in the summer.
- PS: From the statements of the Russian side so far, it is known that Moscow will not accept peace in Ukraine without politically and totally subjugating Ukraine; without having ceded the entire Donbas, therefore also the unconquered areas (a red line for Kiev, but also for Europe, from a security perspective); without its annexations being internationally recognized (an absurdity as big as home, not even Stalin could achieve such a thing); without returning to the logic of spheres of influence in Europe; without lifting penalties; without drastically diminishing the defense capacity of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; without diminishing NATO’s footprint;
- When Putin says that Trump proposed in Anchorage something that Putin agreed to, basically Putin is saying that Trump proposed all of the above (which means infinitely more than that Trump “only” accepted something that, anyway, would have been unacceptable from the beginning and even less unproposed).
