President Trump claims to be focused on the arrest of the “march of death” in Ukraine “as soon as possible”.
But for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the interviews of ceased Mr. Trump are a means for much wider purposes.
Russian and American officials will meet on Monday in Saudi Arabia to deepen their negotiations on the technical details of a partial fire to stop attacks on energy structures and ships in the Black Sea. While Ukraine says that it is ready for a respite, Putin has clarified that it will first look for a wide range of concessions.
The result: the Kremlin seems determined to squeeze as many benefits as possible by the desire of Mr. Trump of a Ukrainian peace agreement, even if the negotiations will be back to slow down. Seen from Moscow, better ties with Washington are an economic and geopolitical advantage, which can be reached even when Russian missiles continue to beat Ukrainian.
The interviews of last week with Russian foreign policy figures in a security conference in Nuova Delhi suggested that the Kremlin saw negotiations on Ukraine and the US ties of Russia in execution on two separate tracks. Putin continues to look for a vast victory in Ukraine, but he is humiliating the push of the ceasefire the fire of Mr. Trump to seize the benefits of a beam with Washington.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, vice -president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Parliament Lower Chamber, said that Mr. Trump and Putin were developing a “bilateral agenda” that was not “connected to Ukraine”.
“Ukraine is following its course,” Nikonov said in an interview on the sidelines of the Conference of New Delhi, defined the Raisine dialogue. “The offensive is in progress,” added Nikonov. “But I think that for Putin, relationships with America are more important than the issue of Ukraine in particular.”
Coming on with Mr. Trump, Moscow’s thought seems to go, could unlock the economic benefits such as spare parts for Russia’s Boeing jets and geopolitical gains widely as a reduction in the presence of NATO in Europe. What is less clear is if Mr. Trump will use those hopes as a lever to obtain a better agreement for Ukraine and if at some point he will lose patience with Mr. Putin.
“Mr. Trump likes rapid business,” said Aleksandr A. Dynkin, a specialist in international affairs who recommend the Russian Foreign Ministry. “If you see that there are great difficulties, it could be disappointed and put this problem aside.”
As a result, Mr. Putin seems to be pulling out all the stops to maintain the interest of Mr. Trump.
Meeting in Moscow with the correspondent of the White House Steve Witkoff this month, Putin delivered a “beautiful portrait of President Trump” commissioned by a Russian artist, said Witkoff in an interview published on Saturday.
“It was such a kind moment,” said Witkoff to the former Fox News Tucker Carlson conductor.
In Ukraine, Putin has not shown any sign of moving from his vast objectives: a guarantee that Ukraine will never join NATO, a rollback of the western alliance in Central and Eastern Europe, limits to Ukrainian military and a certain level of influence on Ukrainian internal politics.
Fedor Votelovsky, director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow, said that Russia would look for a “road map” to a wider agreement before accepting any ceased.
He also said that Russia could accept a peace maintenance force of the United Nations in Ukraine provided that he does not include troops from NATO countries.
“For Russia, the long -term perspective is more precious than a tactical fire ceased,” said Votelovsky, which is part of the advisory councils of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Security Council. “We can emerge with a model that will allow Russia, the United States, and Russia and NATO, to coexist without interfering in the spheres of interests of the other,” he added.
To achieve such an agreement, Russia is attractive to Trump’s mentally attention. Votelovsky claimed that a large agreement on Ukraine was a prerequisite for cooperation in the United States and that Mr. Trump, “as a businessman”, understood that Russian activities were currently underestimated.
Dynkin, Russian international business specialist, said that the Kremlin could remove the United States from his list of “hostile countries”, a classification that limits the ability of American companies to do business in Russia.
He said that Moscow was particularly interested in negotiations on the aviation sector, given the challenges that Russian airlines face in maintaining their American manufacturing jets. The United States could allow the export of plane spare parts and restore direct flights to Moscow, he said; Russia could let the American airlines fly over Siberia, a right that Russia retired in 2022.
Anastasia Likhacheva, dean of international affairs of the Moscow Higher Economics, said that Mr. Trump was unlikely to provide rapid and large -scale relief.
But he said that a beam in relations with the United States could lead to a reduced application of sanctions and make it easier for Russian companies to operate globally by sending a signal that Russia was no longer a problematic partner.
“Such detoxification,” he said, “could be useful and will expand our menu of possibilities.”