Putin plays with Trump: Bezsmertnyi explains impact on Ukraine
An expert says Putin is “purring” to Trump about the “root causes,” while in reality he wants NATO rolled back to 1991 borders. The cancellation of the Budapest summit is a tactical move by the Kremlin.
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Trump and Putin
The planned meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest now appears to be falling apart entirely. But the whole story is a complex Kremlin game. Putin is “leading Trump by the nose.”
This assessment was given by diplomat Roman Bezsmertnyi in an interview with OBOZ.ua.
Bezsmertnyi described the situation around the summit as chaotic, joking about “capricious Washington ladies.” Yet, he stressed, behind the chaos lies a clear strategy.
The diplomat emphasizes that Putin’s call to Trump last week aimed to disrupt the American leader’s meeting with President Zelenskyy, but the attempt failed.
According to Bezsmertnyi, Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump, despite all the media hype, was surprisingly businesslike and successful.
“Of the 25 issues discussed, 22 are advancing confidently, including the signing of an agreement to deliver 25 Patriot systems to Ukraine. In concrete terms… the process is moving forward. And most importantly, the relations between Zelenskyy and Trump have entered a businesslike channel,” the politician said.
He also criticized the presence of Trump’s “close friend” Witkoff at the talks, calling him “completely ignorant of international politics.”
Most intriguing, according to Bezsmertnyi, is how Putin is “playing” with Trump.
“Putin is simply playing with Trump. With money. The very same $67 billion for a tunnel under the Bering Strait. Trump, when he heard the figure, got excited like a child," the diplomat explained.
Putin is also, according to the expert, waiting for Trump to voice phrases about the "root causes of the conflict" or "Russia’s legitimate interests."
"This is not just about Ukraine’s capitulation. This is about the capitulation of the entire security system created after the collapse of the USSR. This is about rolling NATO back to 1991 borders… about restoring Russia’s control over Central Europe," Bezsmertnyi stated.
As for the Budapest summit itself, according to him, the Russians derailed it by spreading a fake story about a British "assassination attempt." This, in the diplomat’s opinion, was a signal to Germany (whose intelligence has historically been active in Budapest) to provide a pretext for moving the meeting, for example, to the UAE.