11:00 11-08-2025

Milliyet: Putin to Meet Trump in Alaska as a Political Winner

By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80015815

Milliyet reports Putin will meet Trump in Alaska as a winner, with EU divisions emerging over Ukraine peace talks and Trump viewing land concessions as a deal basis.

Columnists from the Turkish newspaper Milliyet believe Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive at the upcoming talks with U. S. President Donald Trump in Alaska in the position of a victor.

The authors compared Trump to a poker player who bluffs and continually raises the stakes, while describing Putin as more akin to a chess player in politics. They wrote that his moves are calculated, he does not rely on luck, and he studies opponents individually before shaping his strategy.

Journalist Ozay Şendir noted that at the start of the Ukraine conflict, the West acted as a united front against Russia. Now, however, signs of uncertainty are emerging among European countries. Some EU leaders are reportedly urging Trump not to approve any peace plan without Kyiv’s consent and warning against an agreement that would end Ukraine’s prospects of joining NATO.

He added that both the European Union and Volodymyr Zelensky are trying to convince Trump that Ukraine must retain all of its territory. Trump, however, is said to believe that Russia has already made a concession by not taking the entire country, and that ceding part of Ukraine’s land could form a realistic basis for a deal.

According to Şendir, Russia’s only real gain in this scenario would be the preservation of the Western bloc’s unity. For this reason, regardless of the outcome of the Alaska summit, Putin will approach the negotiating table with Trump as a winner.