The China Mail - Trump to meet Putin in high-stakes Alaska summit

Putin will step onto Western soil for the first time since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and on which Russia has not relented, making rapid gains just before the summit.

Trump extended the invitation at the Russian leader's suggestion, but the US president has since been defensive and warned that the meeting could be over within minutes if Putin does not compromise.

Every word and gesture will be closely watched by European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included and has publicly refused pressure from Trump to surrender territory seized by Russia.

Trump, usually fond of boasting of his deal-making skills, has called the summit a "feel-out meeting" to test Putin, whom he last saw in 2019.

"I am president, and he's not going to mess around with me," Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

"If it's a bad meeting, it'll end very quickly, and if it's a good meeting, we're going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future," said Trump, who gave the summit a one in four chance of failure.

Trump has promised to consult with European leaders and Zelensky, saying that any final agreement would come in a three-way meeting with Trump and the Ukrainian president to "divvy up" territory.

- Trump's latest shift -

Trump has voiced admiration for Putin in the past and faced some of the most intense criticism of his political career after a 2018 summit in which he appeared cowed and accepted Putin's denials of US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election.

Before his return to the White House, Trump boasted of his relationship with Putin, blamed predecessor Joe Biden for the war and vowed to bring peace within 24 hours.

But despite repeated calls to Putin, and a stunning February 28 White House meeting in which Trump publicly berated Zelensky, the Russian leader has shown no signs of compromise.

Trump has acknowledged his frustration with Putin and warned of "very severe consequences" if he does not accept a ceasefire -- but also agreed to see him in Alaska.

The talks are set to begin at 11:30 am (1900 GMT) Friday at the Elmendorf Air Force Base, the largest US military installation in Alaska and a Cold War base for surveillance of the Soviet Union.

Adding to the historical significance, the United States bought Alaska in 1867 from Russia -- a deal Moscow has cited to show the legitimacy of land swaps.

The Kremlin said it expected Putin and Trump to meet alone with interpreters before a working lunch with aides.

Neither leader is expected to step off the base into Alaska's largest city of Anchorage, where protesters have put up signs of solidarity with Ukraine.

Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, leading him to curtail travel sharply since the war.

But the United States is not party to the Hague tribunal, and Trump's Treasury Department temporarily eased sanctions on top Russian officials to allow them to travel and use bank cards in Alaska.

- A 'personal victory' for Putin? -

The summit marks a sharp shift from the approach of Western European leaders and Biden who vowed no discussion with Russia on Ukraine's future unless Ukraine was also at the table.

Zelensky said Tuesday that the Alaska summit was a "personal victory" for Putin.

With the trip, Putin "is coming out of isolation" and he has "somehow postponed sanctions," which Trump had vowed to impose on Russia without progress.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also called for security guarantees for Ukraine -- an idea downplayed by Trump at the start of his latest term.

Daniel Fried, a former US diplomat now at the Atlantic Council, said that Trump had the means to pressure Putin but that the Russian could distract Trump by seeming to offer something new.

Putin, Fried said, "is a master of the new shiny object which turns out to be meaningless."

D.Peng--ThChM