In anticipation of Friday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, I reached out to Victor Sebestyen, an acclaimed journalist and author who has spent decades covering Russia and Eastern Europe. Sebestyen’s best-known book is Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror.
I wanted to know what he thought might result from the summit. The White House has been downplaying expectations, saying the meeting is a “listening exercise,” although Trump said Wednesday that Putin would face “very severe consequences” if he doesn’t agree to a ceasefire at the summit.
What is the best-case scenario? And the worst? And is there still hope of a Ukrainian victory?
Below is our conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
—Peter Savodnik
Peter Savodnik: What do you think of the president of the United States meeting with the president of Russia in Alaska?
Victor Sebestyen: In theory, of course, people should be sitting down and talking about things. In practice, I’m a little dubious about it, because I’m not sure you can do a deal about ending the war in Ukraine without Ukraine. So, I think it’s just the two of them deciding to split up the world together.
PS: Why are the Ukrainians not included?
VS: The essence of Putin’s entire policy is to doubt the very existence of Ukraine as an independent state. The Russians won’t do a deal with the Ukrainians that allows the maintenance of a totally independent, centralized Ukrainian state. Putin has always said he won’t.
This has always been a problem with European and American policy. Whenever Putin has said something the U.S. didn’t want him to say, the U.S. has always assumed he didn’t mean it. And if anyone suggested he did mean it, Putin’s—Russia’s—useful idiots or fellow travelers would say, “You’re just anti-Russian.” That has been one of the main reasons for the failures of our policies for the past 25 years. We misunderstand what Putin sees as his mission, which is to restore Russia as a great power. And that depends on Ukraine.
