"We hope the Alaska summit will serve as a turning point for restoring dialogue and cooperation with the US."
(Moscow = Yonhap News) Correspondent Choi In-young = The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is being harshly criticized for failing to produce a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, but in Russia, the outcome is still being evaluated as satisfactory.
President Trump and President Putin met for about three hours in Alaska on the 15th (local time) and held a press conference, but only said that they"did not reach an agreement" on the Ukraine ceasefire, which was the key agenda of the meeting.
Both presidents positively evaluated the meeting on their own, and President Putin suggested holding the next meeting in Moscow, leaving open the possibility of follow-up negotiations and improved relations.
Regarding this, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian National Security Council and a close associate of President Putin, commented on Telegram on the 16th,"The mechanism for the highest-level talks between Russia and the United States has been fully restored. Calmly, without ultimatums or threats."
Deputy Chairman Medvedev continued,"What is important is that this meeting has proven that it is possible to hold the meeting without preconditions, even while the 'special military operation' continues."
He also noted that during this meeting, President Putin detailed Russia's conditions for resolving the Ukraine issue, and President Trump decided not to increase pressure on Russia for now.
The meeting was evaluated as a success because it provided an opportunity to continue talks with the United States without Russia having to halt its offensive in Ukraine or change its existing position on the ceasefire.
Conversely, the West criticized the summit, saying it only offered President Putin an opportunity to escape international isolation without achieving an immediate ceasefire. They argued that the outcome was beneficial only to President Putin, without any tangible results.
From Russia's perspective, this is a welcome outcome. Russian media also noted President Trump's unprecedented courtesy, including allowing President Putin to ride in his limousine.
"This is the best-case scenario for Russia," Alexei Naumov, an expert at the Russian Council for International Affairs, a Russian think tank, told Kommersant."International isolation has been completely overcome, sanctions have not been introduced, Trump has not called for an immediate ceasefire, and the battlefield is turning in Russia's favor."
Naumov said the summit was impromptu and unprepared, so the lack of a breakthrough in the Ukrainian ceasefire was expected.
He argued that while it should be understood that major developments in the talks were shrouded in secrecy from a traditional diplomatic perspective, the fact that the two presidents assessed progress in the negotiations meant that Russia's position on the ceasefire was taken into account.
Timofey Bordachev, a professor at the Higher School of Economics in Russia, told Kommersant that it was important for the United States to erase the concepts of"strategic defeat" and "isolation" of Russia.
Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, told Telegram that"the meeting between President Putin and President Trump in Alaska could be a historic turning point," and that he was confident that various issues for the full restoration of dialogue between the two countries would be discussed in the future.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russia's special envoy for foreign investment and economic cooperation, who was part of the Russian delegation to the talks, said in a Telegram interview that the talks were productive and that"there will be a lot of resistance, but we will continue to strengthen the US-Russia relationship."
