...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...rejected President Trump's proposal of a full, unconditional cease-fire with Ukraine on Tuesday, but agreed to halt attacks on ''energy and infrastructure'' — sectors Kyiv has recently, and successfully, targeted.
Elsewhere in the two-hour phone call, the Russian president demanded that Trump cut all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, according to a readout from the Kremlin.
Trump was apparently able to secure one element of his cease-fire proposal, as the Kremlin announced Russia and Ukraine would release 175 of each other's prisoners of war, with Moscow also freeing ''23 seriously maimed Ukrainian servicemen'' to receive treatment in their home country.
| GeoTV’s take: |
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...agreed on Tuesday to seek a limited 30-day ceasefire against energy and infrastructure targets in Ukraine, while talks aimed at advancing toward a broader peace plan will begin "immediately," the White House said.
Putin stopped short of accepting a broader US-backed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has said it is ready to accept. The Russian president raised "significant points" about preventing such a truce from being used by Ukraine to mobilize more soldiers and rearm itself, the Kremlin said in a statement following a lengthy phone call between the two leaders.
Putin also emphasised that the "complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv" is a condition for any permanent peace deal.
In a statement, the White House said negotiations on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, as well as other potential areas of concern, would commence immediately in the Middle East.
"The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace," the White House readout said.
Trump had been pressuring Putin to agree to a 30-day ceasefire that he hopes would move one step closer to ending Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two. The war has killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and reduced entire towns to rubble.