Well, the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin, not involving Zelenskyy, about trying to resolve the war was, to the surprise of absolutely no one, a waste of time and money with no deal reached.g I could've predicted that about a week ago but somehow the media were hyping this up as really significant...

Maybe a failed distraction tactic with the Epstein files, but given how quickly he thought he could end this war, he is really failing.

Distraction for sure. The media is in his pocket and will hype whatever this fsiled conman does.

It was an own goal, as Russia and Putin have bern prrsding claims on Alaska again lol. Trump id too weak to say anything, but reportedly has promised him resources off the Alaskan idlands...

Putin wins, don't know how Trump or the US can claim any different though. Trump loves a photo opportunity with a tinpot dictator, but he's got himself in knots on this one. He flip flops so much. And I suspect the whole summit was more about future Russia-US relations rather than ending the war.

Putin, being a smart political operator, saw this as a chance to talk about Russian territorial integrity (keeping the parts of Ukraine he's illegally seized) on a piece of land that used to be Russian territory and get some nice photo opportunities for back home. Trump probably tried to negotiate Putin down to peace but failed, possibly in part because the only peace Putin will agree to, Ukrainian land being given over to the Russians, would be immediately nixed by the coalition of the willing.

Can't be the 'peace president' when you try and fail to make peace.

And as ever, actually watch his news conferences. Man is sundowning hard.

It is approaching criminal negligence on the part of the media, who allegedly operate in a democracy, that they are not questioning Trump's LITERAL BASIC COMPETENCY to appear like a statesman representing the world's largest economy. Rambling on about the Russia hoax and of course playing nice with the world's premier dictator, you have never had an American president more unfit for office. Including Buchanan, A Johnson, Nixon etc. Deranged old fascist.

Have to admit I didn’t have a laugh when Sergei Lavrov turned up in his USSR top!

There is just no urgency from the Russians to come to any solution. Everything is so slow and drawn out. 6 months ago these two meeting would have been a huge deal but nobody really believed they’d come to an agreement now. It’s still very much a lose/lose/lose situation for everybody affected and for some reason the Russians don’t seem bothered by that.

21 minutes ago, Liam Sota said:

There is just no urgency from the Russians to come to any solution. Everything is so slow and drawn out. 6 months ago these two meeting would have been a huge deal but nobody really believed they’d come to an agreement now. It’s still very much a lose/lose/lose situation for everybody affected and for some reason the Russians don’t seem bothered by that.

For Russia it's about soft power imo, that can surely be the only reason. I listened to a few commentators talking about some of the wording Putin was using and it backs up with what I've been feeling for a while, I think a lot of this is about Russia's longer term ambitions and putting a stop to Europe being able to stop them. I'm expecting Putin to still bring up the NATO membership with Ukraine as a red line for any ceasefire.

1 hour ago, Liam Sota said:

There is just no urgency from the Russians to come to any solution. Everything is so slow and drawn out. 6 months ago these two meeting would have been a huge deal but nobody really believed they’d come to an agreement now. It’s still very much a lose/lose/lose situation for everybody affected and for some reason the Russians don’t seem bothered by that.

The realpolitik (obviously) doesn't benefit the US at all but Trump-Putin is a values-based alignment.

You get the feeling that Trump thought he would get something from Putin at the meeting and he said no by the presser at the end. It was all a bit weird. And trump is too big headed to admit he was dupped (again)!

Russia know they can just keep the war going for as long as they need like Chechnya.

Hell some people on social media were saying it wasn’t even Putin there it was a double 🤣