Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Mikhail Zakharov
[REGNUM] On February 12, Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held a telephone conversation. The conversation, which lasted about an hour and a half, was the first official contact between the leaders of the states after Trump's return to the White House.
Following the conversation, the presidents agreed to immediately begin negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and to organize a personal meeting. They also agreed that the time had come to work together.
Trump called Zelensky after his conversation with Putin and later made a number of comments, including noting that Ukraine might return some of its former territories, but would hardly return to the 1991 borders. The US president also said that the issue of Ukraine joining NATO should be removed from consideration.
Trump's call to the Kremlin is an indicator that very serious changes are coming, says American political scientist Malek Dudakov. According to him, the conversation shows the Trump administration's attitude toward dialogue with Russia, resolving the Ukrainian crisis and other issues.
"The attempt by Western countries to isolate Russia ended in failure, and now they are abandoning it. There is an understanding that we need to seriously talk to Russia on equal terms and discuss all controversial conflict issues," the expert adds in an interview with IA Regnum.
German political scientist Alexander Rahr sees a “very good sign” in the fact that there is a willingness to negotiate on Ukraine.
The fact that a specific meeting place for such negotiations has been named, Saudi Arabia, also suggests that we, the world, Europe are moving towards a peaceful settlement,” Rahr says in a conversation with the Regnum news agency. “And now the moment has really come when America, this is very important, is beginning to seriously reconsider its attitude towards the conflict in Ukraine and towards Russia.”
Associate Professor of the Department of European Law at MGIMO, Director of the Center for European Information Nikolai Topornin also believes that the very communication between the presidents can be regarded as the beginning of serious contacts related to an attempt to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
As the expert says, Trump tried to find out the Russian president’s position, whether he was ready to agree to a quick, temporary truce.
"It turned out that Putin is not ready. Well, and in principle Trump learned that the Russian president is ready to work with the new US administration, is ready for a meeting. Trump even invited Putin to his office and is ready to discuss various settlement options," Topornin explains to IA Regnum.
Overall, according to the expert, “things have moved forward.”
US'S EUROPEAN ALLIES IN SHOCK
| That happens a lot when President Trump is involved. |
Shortly after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke, Bloomberg reported that European officials were stunned by the fact that the two presidents had spoken.
" This is a serious diplomatic step that key allies (Washington ) were not informed about," the publication said.
Now any negotiations will go over the heads of both European "hawks" and Ukrainian lobbyists: both European capitals and Kyiv will only inform about what the negotiators have come to after the fact, predicts Malek Dudakov.
“For Europeans, this is, of course, a complete shock, because they understand perfectly well that they will have to pay for the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis,” the Americanist adds.
According to him, the Trump administration will force them to spend money on post-war reconstruction of the rest of Ukraine and on purchasing weapons in the future. And since they have problems with money, there is a budget crisis almost everywhere, this will lead to further destabilization of the European project.
According to Alexander Rahr, it can be assumed that Trump sees Russia as a great power, similar to how the Americans spoke with Joseph Stalin about a new world order in Yalta in 1945. The expert adheres to the point of view that the main decisions - on the situation in Ukraine, in Europe, on NATO issues, on the division of zones of influence, as well as on the problem of restoring the Ukrainian economy - will be worked out directly between Trump and Putin, bypassing London and Paris.
" Naturally, the Europeans are horrified, shouting that such an agreement cannot be made without them. But, apparently, such a deal between Russia and America will be welcomed by the great powers - China, India, Turkey. Everyone is waiting for this," adds Rahr. "And Europe, of course, must ask itself a very painful question: how adequate is it still in this large world system?"
In turn, Nikolai Topornin predicts that Trump will still consult and interact with European allies and “will not resolve this conflict without the participation of European NATO countries, without the participation of the European Union.”
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE NEGOTIATIONS
Obviously, the negotiation process will start in the near future, believes Americanist Dudakov. At the same time, there are still quite serious differences in the negotiating positions between Russia and the United States, so most likely, the negotiation process will take some time before the parties can come to a result.
“There may not be any quick progress, but the fact that the process is starting shows that the dam has been broken,” the expert adds.
Dudakov admits that Trump will try to add the Middle Eastern issue to the Ukrainian issue during the negotiations – that which concerns the Gaza Strip and Iran – in order to immediately resolve the entire tangle of contradictions.
According to Alexander Rahr, the US is ready to stop NATO expansion to the east, which is very important for Russia. But at the same time, the political scientist notes, America is interested in business in Ukraine.
"It seems to me that there will be a division of economic influence zones. Russia will be given the territories where the Russian army is currently stationed, the east of Ukraine," says the source of the Regnum news agency. "And America will try to realize its economic interests in the territory of Western Ukraine."
However, there are no guarantees that Russia will agree to the US proposals; it is too early to talk about this. Moscow will continue to act in its own interests.
Nikolai Topornin reminds that Moscow is still waiting for specific proposals from Washington.
" There is a certain vision of the situation from the Russian side, what it is ready to do, what it is not ready to do. And it must understand to what extent its vision will correlate with the American vision," the expert says.
However, it is already good that "there is momentum": this has never happened with the Joe Biden administration. Now a window of opportunity has opened, the agency's interlocutor notes.
"Let's be honest: this does not mean that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow everything will be over, some compromise solutions will be found that will suit everyone," warns Topornin. "In my opinion, this will be a long process, it may take many months. But in any case, there is light at the end of the tunnel."
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