President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week could have major geopolitical implications, according to one analyst.
Trump and Putin plan to meet in Alaska to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Ahead of the meeting, Putin announced he wanted control over a wide swath of eastern Ukraine, including land his forces do not control, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected this offer, even though Trump has said Zelenskyy will need to give up some land to end the war.
This situation reminded one analyst of how former Soviet strongman Joseph Stalin viewed the world.
“Putin would like to divide the world into spheres of influence with Trump and Xi," Andrey Kolesnikov, a Russia-based political analyst, told the Financial Times. "A new Yalta and a cold war — that’s just what he wants. He is eager to claim [Joseph] Stalin’s laurels."
Ahead of the meeting with Trump, Putin invited to the Kremlin the heads of state from nine countries that Russia considers friendly. Those include China's Xi Jinping and India's national security advisor Ajit Doval.
Putin's actions ahead of the meeting also show that he is not interested in ending the conflict, according to the report.
“There is no real alternative but to freeze the conflict along the current frontline. The post-Korean war stand-off is way more likely than a lasting peace,” Kolesnikov said.