By Andrés Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Two months after a smiling Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shook hands at a military base in Alaska in what appeared to be the start of a rapprochement between the United States and Russia, a senior Russian diplomat has raised doubts that the “spirit of Alaska” is still alive.
For Russia, the Aug. 15 Anchorage summit had two main goals: to persuade President Trump to lean on Ukraine and Europe to reach a peace deal favorable to Moscow, and to encourage a rapprochement in U.S.-Russia relations.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week that there had been little progress on both fronts and that a “powerful momentum” had been lost. Moscow had signaled it was willing to rebuild ties, but Washington had not reciprocated, he said.
“We have a certain edifice of relations that has cracked and is collapsing,” Ryabkov said. “Now the cracks have reached the foundation.”
PUTIN SAYS COMPLEX ISSUES REQUIRE MORE STUDY
After Ryabkov spoke, a Kremlin adviser and Putin spokesman stressed that contacts with Washington continue, and the Russian leader appeared more optimistic than Ryabkov when asked about Ukraine and ties with the United States on Friday.
“These are complex issues that require further study. But we stand on the basis of the discussion that took place in Anchorage,” Putin said at a news conference.
His aide later told the Kommersant newspaper that Russia had agreed to unspecified concessions or reciprocal measures at the Alaska summit that it would be willing to give if Trump got certain things from Ukraine and the Europeans.
Such a contrast in tone between senior officials is rare in Moscow and highlights the delicacy and sensitivity of the two-track approach Russia is taking, combining flattery and warnings to accommodate diplomatic setbacks since the summit.
TRUMP’S FRUSTRATION
While a Trump initiative has raised hopes for peace in Gaza, he is frustrated by his inability to negotiate an end to the fighting in Ukraine and has soured, at least publicly, on Russia.
There is no new meeting between Trump and Putin on the agenda, no date has been set for the next talks on improving relations and Washington, without an ambassador in Moscow since June, has not sought Russia’s approval to send a successor.
Trump has discussed the possibility of supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, hitting a sore spot with Putin, who said it would destroy what remains of ties between the United States and Russia.
Trump has also said he wants Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to hold direct talks, but there appears to be no near-term prospect of that happening as the pace of the war increases.
In a rhetorical turn, Trump has suggested that Ukraine could regain all of its lost territory, while dismissing Russia as “a paper tiger,” a criticism Moscow ignores.
CALL FOR SHARED VALUES
In response, Russia has attempted to play good cop and bad cop, with officials sometimes appearing to threaten tough responses to U.S. action and other times underscoring shared values.
Putin offered to voluntarily maintain limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set in the latest arms control treaty with the United States once it expires next year, if Washington does the same.
Trump said it “seems like a good idea,” but there has been no formal response from the United States.
At a foreign policy conference this month, Putin praised Trump’s efforts to broker peace in Ukraine and made a series of U.S.-focused statements that are likely to appeal to him.
Putin praised Michael Gloss, the son of a CIA official killed in Ukraine fighting on Russia’s side, saying he represented “the core of the MAGA movement, which supports President Trump.”
He also condemned the assassination of Trump ally Charlie Kirk, saying Kirk had defended the “traditional values” that he said Gloss and Russian soldiers in Ukraine were giving their lives to defend.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and Putin’s special envoy, often highlights shared views and values with Trump to try to strengthen ties, at times denigrating Trump’s opponents and praising his special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov even went so far as to say that Russia would support Trump’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.
REJECTION, WARNINGS AND DISAPPOINTMENT
But the warnings have continued and the rejection of Trump’s statements about the supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine was immediate.
Putin said such a step would require the direct involvement of US military personnel, destroy bilateral relations and usher in a new stage of escalation.
Andrei Kartapolov, who heads the Russian parliament’s defense committee, said Moscow would shoot down Tomahawk missiles and bomb their launch sites if the United States supplied them, and would find a way to retaliate against Washington that is damaging.
In other terse comments, Ryabkov said Russia would quickly carry out a nuclear test if the United States did the same, and that Moscow would “make do” if Washington did not accept Putin’s nuclear arms control offer.
Ryabkov also rejected a Russian offer to discuss the fate of American nuclear fuel at a nuclear plant Moscow controls in southern Ukraine, and spoke of how Russia was withdrawing from a deal with the United States to destroy weapons-grade plutonium.
“After the summit in Alaska, there were hopes that Trump would be willing to continue dialogue with Russia and take our interests into account,” wrote Andrei Baranov, a commentator for the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
“Donald has now deeply disappointed us with his characteristic inconsistency.”
(Editing by Timothy Heritage)