Former US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, a Cold War-era airbase, for talks on the war in Ukraine. The summit drew criticism from observers who compared it to the 1938 Munich Agreement or the 1945 Yalta Conference, fearing it could legitimise Russian aggression.
During a joint press conference, Putin endorsed Trump's claim that the war in Ukraine would not have happened if Trump had been president instead of Joe Biden. 'Today President Trump was saying that if he was president back then, there would be no war, and I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so,' Putin said. Trump reciprocated by praising his 'fantastic relationship' with Putin.
The summit included a private meeting and a ride in the presidential limousine, 'the Beast'. Putin, who faces international arrest warrants for alleged war crimes related to the abduction of Ukrainian children, was greeted with applause by Trump. The Russian leader spoke first at the press conference, setting the narrative, while Trump declined to take questions from reporters.
In a subsequent interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump revealed that Putin had discussed the 2020 US election, claiming it was rigged due to mail-in voting. Putin reportedly told Trump, 'You won that election by so much... and if you would have won, we wouldn’t have had a war.' Trump appeared to accept this narrative, despite Putin's own heavily controlled electoral process in Russia.
Critics argue that the summit gave Putin a platform to spread disinformation and normalise his regime. Putin, visiting the US for the first time in a decade, left with an invitation for Trump to visit Moscow, which Trump said would 'get a little heat'. The summit produced no clear progress on a ceasefire in Ukraine.
