Russian state media framed the Alaska meeting as a diplomatic victory, but the trip produced no meaningful concessions for Putin. Leaked U.S. planning documents indicate an original agenda that included senior economic officials, which would have signaled possible talks on sanctions relief and expanded trade. Those expanded economic discussions did not occur. The U.S. president conditioned concessions on concrete steps to end the war in Ukraine and offered no private tête-à-tête or promises of sanctions relief. The meeting left Russia’s war economy under strain and Putin returned without achieving his objectives.
Thanks to what appears to be U.S. planning documents accidentally left on a hotel printer as reported by National Public Radio, we have a clearer picture of what Putin may have hoped to achieve in Alaska, and what he spectacularly failed to secure. The original itinerary included an expanded working lunch with senior U.S. economic officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Steve Lutnik. Their presence would have signaled American willingness to discuss sanctions relief and expanded trade,
Instead, Putin found himself in abbreviated meetings with a U.S. president who refused to offer any meaningful concessions without concrete steps toward ending the war in Ukraine. No private tête-à-tête, no economic discussions, no promises of sanctions relief - just the same message the Kremlin has been hearing from the West for over three years now: end the war, then we can talk.
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