By Dan Rather
We need to have a discussion about what happened in Alaska.
Once upon a time not so long ago, the United States, and particularly the office of the president, represented high ideals, a standard the world looked up to. Not anymore. Donald Trump has obliterated international admiration by inviting one of the worst criminals in the world to meet with him on American soil.
Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t travel much these days because he could be arrested, not only for his war crimes in Ukraine but because of the deaths of a long list of Russian dissidents, all of whom died suddenly and mysteriously on his watch. The full list of his crimes is too long to detail here.
Putin is the epitome of leadership evil, and anything resulting from these supposed “peace talks” should be taken with a large measure of skepticism. Even the brain trust at the White House has lowered expectations because Putin is so untrustworthy.
But Putin is just half the story. The word unprecedented has been used so often to describe Trump’s actions, policies, and appointments. We are becoming immune to its meaning, so wise citizens should stay vigilant. When evaluating the official claims that come out of this Alaska affair, remember that Trump is unrelenting in advancing dangerous positions — positions he takes to make himself look better, regardless of the cost to his country and others.
The only person Trump invited to the talks is Putin, who was not asked for any concessions as a condition to attend the meeting. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine did not receive an invitation. The hastily arranged talks took place at a U.S. military base in Anchorage on Friday, just one week after they were announced.
There are a lot of unprecedented things to tease out of that paragraph.
First, hosting peace talks with the leader of one side of a two-sided conflict is not a peace talk; it is a strategy session.
Second, Trump welcomed Putin, who according to the International Criminal Court is a war criminal, to the United States. The last time Putin met with an American president, it was in a neutral place — Geneva, Switzerland — and that was before Putin invaded a sovereign nation.
Third, only the aggressor has been asked to the talks, not the leader of the country that was invaded.
Putin, whose only leverage is his self-proclaimed edge on the battlefield, cane to the table with an astonishing and arrogant list of non-negotiable demands, according to the Kremlin which included possession of the four Ukrainian regions he illegally annexed in 2022 and has never fully captured, a formal declaration that the Crimean Peninsula is a Russian territory
and prevention of Ukraine from joining NATO or hosting Western troops, among them.
To get what he wants there is a less tangible but no less important lever Putin can utilize: his effect on Trump. Trump has long been an acolyte of the Russian president, susceptible to falling for Putin’s dictatorial charms. Just the fact that Trump agreed to the meeting and on U.S. soil represents a huge diplomatic and public relations win for Putin.
Trump claims not to trust Putin, yet he agreed to host this meeting. His warming to Putin’s overtures should be a warning to everyone that Trump’s ability to negotiate is hampered by his idolization of the Russian leader. Trump has already told the Justice and State Departments to stop collecting evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
The meeting also should be seen as an economic victory for Putin. More than three years of an expensive war has led to international sanctions, reduced oil revenues, and sky-high inflation, significantly weakening the Russian economy. Global markets reacted positively to the prospect of the talks. Meanwhile, a former Russian diplomat believes the Alaska meeting was a tactic by the Kremlin to keep Trump from imposing additional sanctions. It is a ploy Moscow has executed before.
In an effort to minimize Putin’s sway, stroke Trump’s ego, and involve Trump in strategizing, European leaders had a call with him and Zelensky on Wednesday. The Ukrainian leader laid out five principles for Trump’s meeting with Putin. The most important one: an immediate ceasefire.
“We had a very good call,” Trump told reporters. “I would rate it a 10. Very friendly.” Trump also added that he believed the meeting with Putin was a prelude to Putin-Zelensky peace talks.
Zelensky was not so optimistic. “I told my colleagues, [and] the American president, our colleague Putin does not want peace. He wants to occupy us completely,” he told reporters after the call. Looking at Putin’s list of demands and his insistence that Ukraine is rightfully Russian territory dating back to the 18th century, Zelensky was likely correct.
Trump doesn’t exactly have a dog in this fight, so why is he willing to host such a repudiated leader? The prospect of winning a Nobel Peace Prize, no matter how ludicrous that may sound to you and me, is a factor. And, according to Trump biographer Michael Wolff, the meeting is another blatant attempt to take control of the narrative. Wolff claims White House insiders say Trump will sacrifice Ukraine to Russia. “In his mind, this is a trade, Epstein for Ukraine,” Wolff said on Tina Brown’s podcast.
