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An expert warned that U.S. President’s Donald Trump “astonishing U-turn” after agreeing to meet with Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine is an “alarming development”.

Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Associated Press the “symbology” of holding the summit in Alaska was clear, and that the location “naturally favors Russia.”

“It’s easy to imagine Putin making the point. … We once had this territory and we gave it to you, therefore Ukraine had this territory and now should give it to us,” he said, referring to the 1867 transaction known as the Alaska Purchase when Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million.

Gould-Davies likened attempts to understand what seems to be Trump’s latest pivot toward Moscow to “Kremlinology” — the Cold War-era practice of deciphering opaque signals from Soviet leadership. “We’re … looking for clues and for hints … about what the hell is going on; what the mix of influences around Trump and indeed in Trump’s head is propelling his latest statement,” he said. “It’s as if his disillusionment with Putin … never happened,” Gould-Davies noted, pointing to a sudden return to the more conciliatory Russia policy Trump embraced at the start of his presidency.

A U-turn to finally make progress?

Prior to Trump announcing the meeting with Putin, his efforts to pressure Russia into stopping the fighting had delivered no progress. The Kremlin’s bigger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at great cost in troops and armor while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Saturday confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet U.S. President Donald Trump next Friday in Alaska to discuss ending the conflict in Ukraine.

“It seems entirely logical for our delegation to simply fly across the Bering Strait, and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,” Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said.

The meeting would be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva and could mean a breakthrough in Trump’s effort to end the fighting, although there’s no guarantee it would stop the conflict since Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace. Ushakov added the next meeting between the two leaders could be held in Russia and an invitation had already been sent to the US President.

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