Why is Putin’s relationship sore?

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Is the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin off track? A popular newspaper thinks so. It turns to the train to illustrate the current status of U.S.-Russian connections.

“The frontal collision seems inevitable,” declared the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets.

“Trump locomotives and Putin’s locomotives are moving forward with each other.

“And neither will close or stop and go backward.”

For “Putin’s motorcycle”, it is full of power ahead and comes with what is called “special military action”: Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Kremlin leaders have shown no desire to end hostilities and have not announced a long ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the Trump locomotive has been accelerating efforts to force Moscow to end the battle: announcing deadlines, final atums, additional sanctions on Russian trading partners such as Russia and China, and the threat of additional sanctions on Russian trading partners.

In addition, President Trump claims to have repositioned two U.S. nuclear submarines.

When you go from talking about a locomotive to a nuclear submarine, you know that it’s a serious situation.

But does this mean that the White House has really had a “collision course” with the Ukrainian Kremlin?

Or is it a visit to Moscow this week by Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to show that a deal between Russia and the United States to end the fight is possible?

In the early days of the second Trump presidency, Moscow and Washington appear to be expected to rebuild bilateral relations.

There is no hint of collision. Stay away from it. Sometimes it seems Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are moving in the same direction. In February, the United States supported the United Nations and Russia side and opposed a European drafted resolution that condemned Russia’s “aggression” in Ukraine.

During the call that month, the two presidents talked about visiting each other’s countries. It feels like one day the Putin-Trump summit may happen.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has put pressure on Kiev, rather than in Moscow, and fought traditional allies like Canada and Denmark. In speeches and television interviews, U.S. officials were very critical of NATO and European leaders.

All of this is music from the Kremlin ears.

Konstantin Blokhin, a political scientist at the Center for Security Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia in March.

In the second month, the same newspaper was making noise:

“Trumpists are revolutionaries. They are the destroyers of the system. They can only be supported in this regard. Western unification is no longer. Geographically, no longer a coalition. Trumpism has been determined and has quickly undermined the transatlantic consensus.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has become a regular visitor to Russia. He traveled here four times in just two months, negotiating for hours with Vladimir Putin. After a meeting, Kremlin leaders showed him a portrait of Donald Trump to bring back to the White House.

President Trump is said to have been gestured “clear”.

But President Trump is not only looking for Moscow’s paintings. He hopes President Putin will sign an unconditional full ceasefire in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin believes Russia now holds the initiative on the battlefield and has been reluctant to stop fighting despite his claim that Moscow is committed to providing a diplomatic solution.

That’s why Donald Trump is getting increasingly frustrated with the Kremlin.

In recent weeks, he has condemned Russia’s ruthless attack on Ukrainian cities as “disgusting” and “shameful” and accused President Putin of talking about “a lot of nonsense” in Ukraine.

Last month, Donald Trump announced a 50-day final pass to President Putin to end the war, threatening sanctions and tariffs. He then reduced it to ten days. The deadline will expire this weekend. So far, there is no sign that Vladimir Putin will succumb to the pressure from Washington.

Again, how much pressure does Vladimir Putin really have?

“Because Donald Trump has changed so many deadlines, he has twisted him one way or another,” said Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at New York University’s new school.

“Putin will struggle as much as possible, or, unless Ukraine says ‘we are tired and we are willing to accept your situation.”

“I think Putin is sitting in the Kremlin and thinks he is fulfilling his dream of the Russian Tsar, and then the secretary-generals like Joseph Stalin show the West that Russia should not be disrespectful.”

Judging from the pictures I have drawn so far, it looks like a head-on collision between Putin and Trump’s motorcycle is inevitable.

not necessarily.

Donald Trump sees himself as a great trader, and from the looks of things, he hasn’t given up securing his business with Vladimir Putin.

Steve Witkoff will hold talks with Kremlin leaders in Russia this week. We don’t know what kind of offer he might bring. But some Moscow commentators predict that carrots will be more than sticks. Trump said on Sunday that Russia “seems to be very good at avoiding sanctions”, which did not notice.

On Monday, Ivan Loshkarev, associate professor of political theory at MGIMO University in Moscow, told Izvestia that to facilitate dialogue, Mr Witkoff may make a “proposal of cooperation favorable [to Russia] This will open after Ukraine agrees. ”

Is this enough to convince the Kremlin to establish peace three and a half years after the war?

no promises.

After all, so far, Vladimir Putin of Ukraine has not yet proposed from his biggest demands on territory, Ukraine’s neutrality and the future size of the Ukrainian army.

Donald Trump wants to make a deal. Vladimir Putin wants to win.

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