Nick Schifrin:
But U.S. officials tell “PBS News Hour,” while President Trump is interested in those other topics, Friday is focused on ending the war in Ukraine.
For more on tomorrow’s summit between President Trump and Putin, we turn to Dmitri Trenin, a longtime analyst based in Moscow who was the head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Moscow office and is now professor at the Higher School of Economics University.
Dmitri Trenin, thanks very much. Welcome back to the “News Hour.”
U.S. officials described President Trump’s goal to me tomorrow as getting a cease-fire from Vladimir Putin and hearing a fundamental idea that Putin is willing to end the war. So is President Putin willing to accept a cease-fire and willing to end the war?
Dmitri Trenin, Higher School of Economics University: Well, I think that, from the Russian perspective, the agenda of the meeting in Alaska is much broader.
There is an element, a huge element of that deals with Ukraine. But then there is a lot of interest in discussing the future of the badly damaged U.S.-Russian relations. Now, in the Russian thinking, a cease-fire is a very important element of the resolution of the conflict. But it cannot be the only element, and it cannot come first.
