Even the most critical in Moscow point out that the Tsar gained more time without giving anything away, but instead obtaining the red carpet and a historic handshake.
Aiming for the ruble, but getting a kopeck. Sometimes extremes collide. With this old popular expression, the Russian opposition and its media intend to emphasize that despite high expectations, nothing concrete was agreed upon in Anchorage.
Referring instead to the old copper coin that today would still be one hundredth of a ruble, the ultranationalist galaxy, the so-called party of war forever which feared an immediate ceasefire like the plague, highlights the scorn of Donald Trump , who wanted to achieve a lot and had to settle for almost nothing.
But both sides agree on one point. Vladimir Putin has bought more time, without conceding anything, but instead obtaining, and free of charge, a photo of the red carpet rolled out beneath his feet and a historic handshake, which in themselves are already the sign of an important victory for Russia.
And if the media and official politics believe the Russian president is by definition never wrong, imagine when he actually wins. Calm, almost Olympian, was the incendiary Dmitry Medvedev's morning commentary. Perhaps because when things are going so well, at least according to his aggressive vision, there's no need for invective.
A full-fledged mechanism for talks between Russia and the United States at the highest level has been reinstated. Calm, without ultimatums or threats. The Russian president personally and in detail explained to the US president our conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine. The White House chief refused to exert pressure on Russia. At least for now. Importantly, the meeting demonstrated that negotiations are possible without preconditions and simultaneously with the continuation of the Special Military Operation. Most importantly, both sides explicitly placed the responsibility for achieving a cessation of hostilities on the shoulders of Kiev and Europe.
The Tsargrad website, a media hub for hardliners created and supported by the mystical oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who in 2014 financed the Little Green Men who invaded Donbass, hosted a live broadcast that resembled a triumphal march. Oleg Tsarev, a former Rada MP for four terms for Yanukovych's Party of Regions and one of the most vocal opponents of the Kiev regime, expressed his satisfaction at having predicted this outcome.
Russia is not interested in a ceasefire. The General Staff reports to the President every day that our victory on the front can be swift. Agreeing to a halt in hostilities while we continue to advance would have been incorrect. Right now, only the military reports to the Kremlin and the subsequent silent talks in high places count. These discussions were made possible certainly not thanks to the"peacemaker" Trump but only thanks to the Russian soldier who, despite everything, continues to push forward.
This morning, the editorial by founder Malofeev also arrived. He has previously criticized Putin for delaying the negotiations, but after Alaska, he's in raptures. Let's see if the US administration can force the Kiev regime to make peace. In the meantime, we must acknowledge that Putin, as always, is the best negotiator in the world: peace with America, and we continue to make progress in Donbass. A great achievement.
With some qualifications, this is a position shared by somewhat more detached observers, such as Timofei Bordachev of the Center for European and International Research, a professor at the Higher School of Economics that is one of the hotbeds of Putinism. I didn't expect the summit to resolve the Ukrainian question, which is the cornerstone of European security. But at the same time, the idea of Russia's"strategic defeat" and "isolation" has been definitively removed by the American side. This approach excluded the conflict from the scope of international relations and made it unmanageable. The fact that this change has occurred suggests that a new reality has emerged: the war in Ukraine remains, its military-technical phase will likely continue for a while, but it is becoming normal in terms of the history of international relations. And, therefore, solvable: there are no"existential" factors for its continuation.
If the stalemate on Ukraine is an achieved goal, official politics is tasked with emphasizing the global nature of the summit, which was not limited to Ukraine alone, the watchword. Andrey Klishas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Legislation, fulfills this task by speaking of a broad vision that, in his opinion, would confirm Russia's aspiration for lasting and just peace. A new architecture of European and international security is on the agenda, and everyone must accept it. The tasks of the Special Military Operation will be fulfilled either militarily or diplomatically. There will be no ceasefire without preconditions, even though the front is collapsing and Russian troops are constantly liberating new territories.
His colleague Andrey Klimov, head of the Commission for the Defense of State Sovereignty and a diplomat with a reputation for being dovish, also joins the chorus. I see that in recent weeks the Americans have been very seriously considering the possibilities of achieving a major strategic, economic, and financial result that could come from a possible restoration of normal relations with Russia. The US must be recognized for having done everything possible to leave no room for their smaller European partners, much less for the puppet Zelensky. They keep them at bay by imposing their own steps and choices, like this summit, to avoid another spiral of tension with Russia. Meanwhile, in recent days the ruble has started to soar again, something it hadn't done for months. Far from it.
