The historic Alaska Summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has finished. Both presidents judged it to be a great success. But with every major event, there are winners and losers. Putin appears to have gotten everything he asked for, imposing Moscow’s Ukraine agenda on the US — even if turning this into reality faces obstacles. For the Trump administration, the only factor that really matters is how well the summit results play to Trump’s political base.
A year ago, US-Russian relations were at an all-time low. According to Central Intelligence Agency estimates, the deterioration of relations, combined with the heightening of tensions over the Ukraine war, had created a better than 50% chance for a nuclear war between the US and Russia by end-2024. It is in this context that Trump was elected president in November 2024, and it is this reality that drives his policy formulations since assuming office in January of this year. Following a series of phone calls with Putin, and the reestablishment of direct high-level diplomatic engagement between US and Russia, the US and Russian presidents finally met face-to-face in Alaska for a summit that was short in duration — and results, with Trump himself telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that “it’s not a done deal at all” — but long in expectations.
