Trump-Putin Meeting: Where Does Russia Go from Here?

Dimitri Alexander Simes

Security, Eurasia

Moscow is betting that somewhere down the line, Washington will change its mind about Russia. All it has to do is wait.

Moscow lauded last Friday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Osaka as a modest victory.

Although top Russian officials acknowledged that little had changed as a result of the meeting, they expressed tempered optimism about the tone of the two leader’s conversation. They are hopeful that if they show patience and manage to keep U.S.-Russian tensions from spiraling out of control, then Washington will eventually accept new détente without Moscow having to alter its course.

In an interview on Sunday, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told state television host Vladimir Solovyov that Moscow saw encouraging signs from Trump at the meeting.

“The American president quite distinctly showed his intention to reenergize the dialogue,” he said. “As for Putin, he has long been talking of his desire to go along the path of normalization of relations, but he also said that without mutual interest from the United States we cannot talk about this.”

Peskov added, “Now, for the first time, we have seen this mutual interest from the American president.”

At the same time, other members of Putin’s team admitted that nothing close to a breakthrough occurred. Ambassador Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s foreign-policy assistant, said after the meeting “Unfortunately, it was not possible to discuss many topics in depth.”

Trump and Putin reportedly discussed arms-control, trade, Iran, Venezuela, Syria and Ukraine. However, no new agreements or plans for a subsequent meeting between the two leaders were announced.

Despite the lack of concrete results from the Trump-Putin meeting, Moscow does not appear discouraged. Much of the Russian commentary after the meeting emphasized that meetings such as the one in Osaka will sooner or later yield tangible results.