Speculation over how the upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has run rampant over the last week, with some expressing concern the Alaska-based powwow could be more games from the Kremlin, while others have begun to draw comparisons to the 1985 breakthrough meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Immediately following Trump’s announcement of the meeting last week, South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been ardently opposed to Russia’s war in Ukraine, took to social media to argue, “To those who criticize President Trump for being willing to meet with Putin to end the bloodbath in Ukraine – remember Reagan met with Gorbachev to try to end the Cold War.
“I’m confident President Trump will walk away – like Reagan – if Putin insists on a bad deal,” he added.
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While some comparisons can be drawn between the upcoming summit and the historic 1985 meeting in Geneva – which then led to the pair sitting down together two more times before the Cold War was finally brought to an end – there are “glaring” differences, warned experts.
“We could be approaching a breakthrough moment if Putin realizes that Trump is the only world leader who will ever help Russia get out of the Ukraine War and end its isolation,” Fred Fleitz, who served as a deputy assistant to Trump and chief of staff of the National Security Council during the president’s first term, told Fox News Digital.
“Trump offers Putin a narrow window to greatly improve the lives of the Russian people and make them prosperous,” he added. “Trump hopes to achieve a compromise that will give Putin a face-saving way to end the conflict.”
But world leaders and security experts alike remain wary that there is any interest from Putin to end his war ambitions in Ukraine.
“They need to meet. We need to see the results of the meeting, and then we need to see whether those are palatable for Ukraine, for Europe and for us,” Dan Hoffman, former CIA Moscow station chief, told Fox News Digital.
“I’ve seen no indication whatsoever that Vladimir Putin wants to end the war. So let’s see if there’s any evidence of that,” he added.
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Hoffman pointed out that the U.S. has tried to incentivize Russia to end its war through various means, including direct military pressure by sending arms packages to Ukraine, and economic sanctions that will not only impact Putin’s war chest, but will cause financial strain across the country.
Ultimately, Putin does not appear to have yet changed his war calculus, and experts highlighted that there are some significant differences between Putin and his Soviet predecessor, Gorbachev, that make this upcoming talk vastly different.
Gorbachev came to power after years of attempts by Reagan to meet with his Soviet counterparts. The then-new Soviet leader was not only interested in ending the decades-long Cold War with the U.S., but he was also looking to implement major changes at home.
Peter Rough, senior fellow and director for the Center on Europe and Eurasia with the Hudson Institute, explained that Gorbachev – who ultimately oversaw the dissolution of the Soviet Union – was also working to increase transparency in the government and open the economy while he was engaging in talks with Reagan.
“There is no evidence that Putin is interested in opening up Russia,” Rough told Fox News Digital. “Instead, he wants to defend the course he has set over the past 25 years, especially the invasion of Ukraine.
“Putin is sending none of the signals Gorbachev sent in the 1980s,” he added.
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There are clear differences in how Putin – who has openly chastised Gorbachev and referred to the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” in a 2005 speech – operates in comparison to his Soviet predecessor.
Though some have argued there are similarities in how Trump works as a statesman, in comparison to Reagan.
The White House and other GOP figures have argued that Trump has utilized Reagan’s “peace through strength” approach in his geopolitical maneuvering since taking office in January.
“I believe there will be compelling comparisons between Trump’s ‘peace through strength’ approach to Putin and Reagan’s approach to Gorbachev,” Fleitz, who serves as vice chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, said. “Reagan’s strong leadership on the world stage promoted global stability and contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Putin is coming to the Alaska Summit because he sees a strong U.S. president and one who is prepared to impose crippling energy sanctions on Russia,” he added.
Rough echoed this line of reasoning but warned much will be determined in how Trump handles Putin in the upcoming summit.
“Trump has leverage unlike any other Western leader,” Rough argued. “I like the formula ‘peace through strength’ but the devil will be in the details.”
“If the president backs his diplomatic effort in Alaska with a concrete threat of economic pressure on Russia and perhaps even talk of arms sales to Ukraine, I think the odds of him pushing Putin into a ceasefire improve,” Rough added.
Trump has already said he does not plan on making any deals, and described the talks as a “feel-out meeting” or a “listening exercise,” as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt detailed to reporters on Tuesday.
The president said he will immediately communicate with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders following his discussion with Putin.
