Vladimir Putin will seek to woo Donald Trump with the promise of lucrative economic ties when the two presidents meet in Alaska, in a summit arranged at the Russian leader's request that has caught Kyiv and European allies off guard.
Putin's adviser Yuri Ushakov said the leaders would discuss the "huge untapped potential" in Russia-US economic relations, including trade and investment. The Russian president is bringing two senior economic advisers, notably finance minister Anton Siluanov, who has overseen Russia's response to western sanctions. The removal of those sanctions has long been a key Kremlin condition for any peace deal.
A former high-ranking Kremlin official said Putin saw the meeting as a chance to portray President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the one prolonging the war and to pitch a peace on his terms as a gateway to business opportunities. "Putin knows Trump sees the world through a business lens," the official said.
Past encounters suggest the former KGB operative may have the upper hand. A Russian academic close to the foreign ministry said Trump was the kind of leader Putin believed he could always strike a deal with, citing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi as examples. However, analysts note the summit has been organised on too short a timescale to deliver meaningful progress, and Russia's conditions for ending the war remain unchanged, including the full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from key regions and Kyiv renouncing Nato ambitions.
Trump has sought to lower expectations, describing the talks on Monday as a "feel-out" to determine whether a deal was possible. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called it a "listening exercise". The meeting comes after Trump's rhetoric towards Putin hardened in recent weeks, but he has since reverted to a milder tone, particularly after his envoy Steve Witkoff met the Russian leader last Wednesday.
