by Gevorg Mirzayan
[REGNUM] Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump will hold a bilateral summit in the very near future, said Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.
The United Arab Emirates is a likely venue for the meeting. When asked by journalists about a possible venue for talks with Trump, Putin said that Russia has many friends who could organize the summit: “One of the friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates. I think we will decide, but this would be one of the suitable, quite suitable places.”
The agreement to meet was reached in two stages. The first was a visit to Moscow by US Presidential Special Representative Steven Witkoff, who flew to the Russian capital for the first time in almost three months.
As before, he met with Vladimir Putin, to whom he conveyed a message from Donald Trump. Not an ultimatum, not a threat, but a certain formula for settling the situation in Ukraine. "There was a proposal from the Americans, which seems quite acceptable to us," says Yuri Ushakov.
Precisely acceptable - that is, worthy of at least discussion. And following the initial discussion with Whitkoff, the Russian president conveyed his proposals to the American side.
Western media immediately exploded with a series of various "leaks" - for example, they said that it was about an "air truce", that is, a mutual renunciation of missile, bomb and drone strikes on areas located far from the front line. However, Moscow remained silent.
"The current situation is that our president has full information, that is, our signals, signals from President Trump. And Trump has not yet been informed of the results of this meeting. Therefore, I would refrain from more detailed comments," Yuri Ushakov explained on the evening of August 6.
Translated from diplomatic into Russian, this means that Moscow conveyed proposals to Washington. And waited for Trump to respond to them.
And the answers depended not only on the American president himself. It is no coincidence that the White House owner held a telephone conference with Zelensky and a number of European leaders immediately after Whitkoff's visit.
Some Russian experts wrote that Trump, they say, simply did not want to talk to Zelensky without witnesses. However, this is not the main reason for the Europeans to get involved - most likely, Trump tried to force them all together to accept the conditions that he would agree on with Putin. So that later, during negotiations with the Russian president, he could still speak on behalf of the entire collective West.
And this is a problem now, as even American leaders indirectly admit. “In my opinion, we now have a better understanding of the conditions under which Russia is prepared to end the war. We must now compare them with those under which our European and Ukrainian allies are prepared to end the war. Ukrainians first and foremost,” says Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
And this is not some kind of a nod to the Kyiv regime. Ukrainian and European excessive, unrealistic desires are the main obstacle to any peace deal today. And also one of the key obstacles for Trump in his negotiations with Vladimir Putin.
After all, every time the American president proposes something, Moscow can (and should) demand guarantees that the Kyiv and Brussels regimes will implement these initiatives. Trump, however, has not been able to provide such guarantees up until today. And if he expects to reach some kind of agreement with Russia on Ukraine, he needs them.
However, even if the parties do not reach an agreement on Ukraine, the upcoming summit may well be successful. Firstly, because the lack of compromise on Ukrainian affairs does not mean the beginning of escalation. Rather, Moscow and Washington will continue to conduct a strategic dialogue while Russian troops conduct successful offensive operations. And if America does not interfere, then this is enough for Russia.
Secondly, Moscow and Washington have other topics that could and even should be discussed at the level of leaders.
"Any meetings of top officials, as a rule, always cover the entire spectrum of relations between countries. And given that after the first face-to-face meetings of our diplomats, several working groups have started working, the results of their work will be discussed," Andrey Klintsevich, head of the Center for the Study of Military and Political Conflicts, explains to Regnum.
For example, issues of normalizing diplomatic relations. Russian diplomatic property in the United States is still blocked, and the number of diplomats in the institutions has been reduced to a minimum. There are also few American diplomats in Moscow, and on this basis they have practically refused to issue visas to Russians.
Economic issues may also be discussed. "This is a priority for Trump in general. It is possible that it was here that we made him some tasty proposals that he was so happy about," says Andrei Klintsevich.
The discussion may concern both the development of Russian deposits and the sale of hydrocarbons to the EU through American companies. However, for this to happen, the United States must lift a number of sanctions against Russia.
However, the most important topic is still strategic stability. For example, the issue of extending the START-3 treaty, which expires in 2026. It needs to be extended - and, ideally, within the framework of a multilateral agreement, not a bilateral one. With the participation of other nuclear countries - China, India, France, Great Britain, Pakistan.
"In addition, these are issues related to missile defense - there is a strong bias towards the US," says Andrei Klintsevich. Elements of the American missile defense system are already in Europe and are being deployed in East Asia. The deployment of these missiles, coupled with US plans to militarize space, is a serious challenge to global stability.
And if Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump reach a public agreement on at least one of the above issues, then the summit can already be called a success.