“Not everything happened as Putin hoped,” when he met Donald Trump in Alaska.
And the events of the last days, in particular “the resistance on the part of Europe”, are likely to give birth to a feeling of concern in Vladimir Putin.
This is the opinion of Catherine Belton, journalist at Washington Post And renowned specialist in the Vladimir Putin regime, with whom I took stock of Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts.
Photo provided by Catherine Belton
Catherine Belton
“I believe that the leaders in Europe were very worried when they saw the red carpet unrolled for Putin, the large handshake, the welcome he received,” she explains. And I think Putin was really in a total charming offensive. He hoped to succeed in rallying Trump to his vision of war, so that Trump then forced Ukraine to accept an agreement on the conditions of Russia. »»
But that’s not exactly what happened.
The American president received his Russian counterpart with honors such as it was annoying. It’s true. But the Alaska summit was shortened. And Donald Trump explained that he had to consult Ukraine before an agreement was concluded.
Subsequently, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky moved to the White House with reinforcement: his European allies.
And, oh miracle, this time, it went pretty well!
“The fact that Putin could not convince Trump to support him fully in Alaska created an opening for Europe, and [les dirigeants] took advantage of it. They had six hours or more, to really shape Trump’s vision on what security guarantees should look like, on what would be a fair and solid solution for Ukraine. So the balance really leaning on the other side, ”summarizes the expert about the meeting of August 18 at the White House.
Catherine Belton, currently established in London, has written on Russia since the late 1990s. A few years ago, she published the book Putin’s men – how KGB took over Russia before attacking west. This essay, where she notably recounts the ascent of Vladimir Putin, has earned her elegant criticism.
I asked him for his opinion on the state of mind of the Russian president in the wake of recent developments.
“I think he must be a little worried, because he knows that his bet has not fully borne fruit,” she said.
The state of the Russian economy also has something to worry, said the journalist. For example, companies and large Russian banks now warn that there will be imminent bankruptcies. In this context, Vladimir Putin could even have a long -term trouble to finance his war.
“I just wrote an article with a colleague who was in Moscow recently and who spoke to an initiate of the Kremlin. He was told that in the weeks preceding the summit, there was a real feeling of crisis in Moscow. They were very worried about the harder sanctions that Trump threatened to impose, “she said.
“So Putin, going to Alaska, at least pretending to engage in peace talks, has saved a little more time. But for how long can he continue to drag Trump? »»
Of course, Russian troops gain ground in Ukraine. We also still feel a certain arrogance on the part of the Kremlin. One example among others: upon his arrival in Alaska last week, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Russian Sergei Lavrov wore a sweater on which we read “CCCP”, the Russian acronym of the former USSR.
But the varnish cracks …
“I think that deep down, there is uncertainty. They are concerned about the unpredictability of Trump and they know that they have failed to control it completely, “says Catherine Belton.
Isn’t the attention of the American president of a limited duration?
Does he not risk disinterested in the Ukrainian crisis if Vladimir Putin and his entourage manage to drag things long enough?
“They certainly hope that. But you know, Trump is so determined to win his Nobel Peace Prize, she replies. And I think he really likes this attention. The fact that Putin came to him, that all of Europe came to him, that he is really the center of the world. »»
Earlier this week, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkine, said that we cannot trust Vladimir Putin and his loved ones on Ukraine, because they do not believe that the country exists, “whether it is a state, a story or a language”.
According to him, they will “not give up their efforts to destroy Ukraine”.
Catherine Belton does not prove her wrong.
“In the very first interview that Putin gave, when he was appointed deputy mayor of Saint Petersburg, in 1992, he already referred to the imperial and pre-communist past of Russia, at the time when Ukraine was part of the Empire of Russia. And that is what he sought to restore, ”she underlines.
Not only does the Russian president have a distorted vision of history (he maintains that the Ukrainian state has been artificially created), but it also has a paranoid vision of modern Ukraine.
“He is convinced that if Ukraine is not part of the Russian Empire, Westerners manipulate it and will use it against it in one way or another. And that if Ukraine is a free democracy, this is a sort of threat to its power, “she adds.
To demonstrate this, the journalist reports what Vladimir Iakounine, a Russian oligarch and former KGB, close to the president, told her, which she interviewed.
“He said for example – and I think they really believe it – that the CIA has plotted since the 1960s on a way of separating Ukraine from Russia. And that without Ukraine, Russia cannot be a great power or a great empire, ”she says.
“It is therefore a kind of guiding light for them. And now that they have embarked on this path, they will not abandon it. »»
Who is Catherine Belton?
After being corresponding to Moscow for the Financial Times From 2007 to 2013, Catherine Belton devoted more than half-dozen years to investigate the power rise of Vladimir Putin and to decipher “the influence and money networks” linked to her diet. She pulled the book THE Putin men – How the KGB seized Russia before attacking westpublished in 2020. Since 2022, she has worked at Washington PostAmerican daily for which she covers Russian affairs.
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