Russia is stalling for time by negotiating with the US to avoid new sanctions and achieve at least minimal success on the battlefield. Instead, US President Donald Trump wants diplomatic success to soothe his ego and bring closer the possibility of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
This was stated in a comment to Ukrinform by Michal Kuż, a Polish expert on international relations and a lecturer at Lazarski University in Warsaw, noting that due to excessive expectations, Russia will be doomed to defeat in the negotiations.
By entering into negotiations, Russia is playing for time, while President Trump began to lose patience, wanting to achieve some diplomatic success, and began to tighten the screws (on Russia and its allies - ed.), - the expert noted.
According to him, Putin is forced to enter into negotiations with Washington under the threat of sanctions, in particular against countries that actively trade with Russia, as a result of which India, for example, could stop buying significant volumes of oil from Russia.
Therefore, as Kuz noted, Russia is forced to come up with some diplomatic proposal to buy time. However, this is unlikely to lead to any breakthrough and a positive result for it.
In my opinion, in a sense, a Greek tragedy is being played out, where Russia is doomed due to inflated expectations. Why inflated expectations? Because Russia lives in the imperial past, considers itself a superpower and perceives itself as an equal partner of the United States, although in economic terms it is not an equal partner even for Germany, the expert emphasized.
He added that Russia is a superpower only in terms of nuclear potential, but not in terms of economic indicators, and for Trump, as a businessman, the economy is more important than military potential.
Therefore, in negotiations for the US, Russia is a vassal, not an equal partner, the expert believes.
Kuz noted that Trump has already been disappointed twice by Russia's intransigent position and is now making a third attempt. And if that attempt is also unsuccessful, he may abruptly change his sympathy (for Putin - ed.) to hatred.
As far as I can see, we are dealing with a certain kind of destructive arrogance on the part of Russia, in Greek it is called hubris (arrogance, pride, hypertrophied self-esteem - ed.). It leads to the fact that Russian elites suffer from a chronically false perception of reality regarding Russia's position on the international arena. Regardless of what tactics the Russians use, they will always have inflated (compared to their real capabilities) expectations in negotiations with superpowers like the United States. And they will always lose, regardless of who negotiates on their behalf, - Kuz emphasized.
He added that despite the fact that most Russians and some Russian elites consider Russia a superpower, it is not: in economic terms, its place is between Spain and South Korea.
According to the expert, after unsuccessful negotiations with Russia, Trump may take the position of providing significant material and technological support to Ukraine while simultaneously further isolating Russia economically.
As the agency reported, US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will meet on August 15 in Alaska.
President Volodymyr Zelensky statedthat Ukraine is ready for real solutions that can bring peace, but Ukrainians will not give their land to invaders.
