In the run-up to the call between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the hosts of the Russia’s state media were weakened with anticipation.
A broadcaster on channel Russia 1 described it as “the most important telephone conversation in the modern world”.
When the 2½-hour call packed, the Russian media quickly noticed that he was the longest between one US and Russian president. And that alone was enough for some to call it a diplomatic victory.
“It is now official: this is the perfect phone call,” wrote Kirill Dmitriev. Putin’s special representative for international economic cooperation on X.
While the advertisements published by the White House and the Kremlin were sparse and only revealed what each side wanted to present as important snack bars – including the agreement to stop attacks on the energy infrastructure in Ukraine – Trump “very well called”, and the Kremlin found that both leaders understood and confidanteled each other.
It was a blunt sign for the warming relationships between Washington and Moscow and confirmed the opportunity to present Russia at the Trump government, which could go beyond the battlefields of Ukraine.
After Russia launched his full invasion in Ukraine, his already negative relationship with West deteriorated dramatically. There was a pariad in some geopolitical circles, and successive sanctions made it cut largely by the European and North American markets.
“Russia is in a terrible economic state … But that’s the price that Russia pays for Putin’s ambitions,” said Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who reset his post in protest against the invasion of Russia.
Bondarev believes that Putin has a plan to stop his war against Ukraine, and is probably just waiting to see what the Trump government offers.
Warming relations
During the call, the Kremlin said that the two guides discussed the need to improve bilateral relationships, to see the economic cooperation and even arrange international hockey games between both sides.
It was an attempt to restart a historical rivalry through sports diplomacy at a time when most Russian teams are currently prohibited from international competition.
Putin did not agree with the US proposal for a complete, unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, but said that he supported a smaller step to stop attacks on the energy infrastructure for 30 days.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with a proposal supported by the United States that Russia and Ukraine attack the energy infrastructure of the other days, the Kremlin said after a long call between Putin and US President Donald Trump.
Both Ukraine and Russia started air strikes overnight and accused each other of having hit energy sites.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia started 150 drones overnight, including some that were aimed at energy devices. According to Zelenskyy, two Ukrainian hospitals were hit during the attack.
During the call with Trump, Putin seemed to repeat his conditions for a full ceasefire, which included the blocking of all western military aid to Ukraine and the intelligence company.
But in an interview with Fox News, Trump said that military aid was not discussed.
The exact details of the conversation remain unclear, but it does not seem
The White House and the Kremlin also said that the leaders had talked about the crisis in the Middle East. Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political expert and founder of the analysis company R. politics, said this is “an obvious victory for Putin”, as it signals that there can be US Russia cooperation on important international questions.
“The process of separating the Ukraine question of broader bilateral relationships between the United States and Russia is gaining dynamics,” she wrote on the Telegram social media platform.
“Putin managed to reject the proposal for a full ceasefire and to transform the situation to its advantage without making concessions.”
Economic potential
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that both Putin and Trump are aware of the “enormous potential” for many common commercial projects.
Special representative Dmitriev considered on Wednesday in a Business Forum about what the improved relationship with Washington could promise.
After Dmitriev had addressed oligarchs and entrepreneurs on Wednesday, he said reporters that many US companies who left the Russian market in 2022 would return, and the best way to do this would be to work with Russian companies.
He said that Russia’s space agency Roscosmos is interested in meeting Elon Musk, leading SpaceX (as well as Trump’s department for state efficiency) to work together on research, including the possibility of flights to Mars.
Dmitriev, who also leads the Russia’s sovereign asset fund, said partner with US companies that want to invest.
When Putin publicly spoke to the US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine for the first time last week, he spoke about how Washington and Moscow might perhaps Could work together for energy projectsWhich could lead to another gas pipeline for Europe.
Putin could have referred to the north stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany and were damaged in one Explosion in autumn 2022.
In the past few days there have been a number of reports, including that of the Finance times and the German newspaper PictureWhich indicates that there is a plan to restart the pipeline, possibly with the investments of American companies. However, Germany says it is non -involved In all talks to revive Nord Stream 2.
Kremlin Agenda
Anna Matveeva, a senior research fellow at King’s College London, says after years of a negative climate between the USA and Russia, some in Russia see the abrupt turn in relationships as “dispute of hope”.
But she says Additional sanctions Against Russia after printing the US congress in 2019.
During the call with Trump Putin, she says she says the chance to articulate his conditions in Ukraine again, she said that Ukraine was not the focus of the Kremlin.
“You want to get the topic of Ukraine out of the way … Because you want to go about things that are more important for you,” she said in an interview with CBC News. “The Kremlin has a very large agenda … including the normalization of bilateral relationships.”
Adjusting this is probably an attempt to promote common events, as the hockey games Putin suggested.
The Kremlin said Trump supported the idea, and on Wednesday Russian sports minister said that he was working on opportunities to bring players from NHL and Russia’s KHL together.
“Economic measures, culture and sport – that is the way the relationships are gradually being rebuilt,” said Matveeva.
