So just what was the outcome of the recent – and historic – Trump/Putin Summit at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska? Oddly enough, we still don’t know. All that we do know is that the two world leaders talked for several hours, made brief public statements, then reboarded their respective planes and hightailed it out of town, leaving behind a bewildered world press and a plethora of unanswered questions.
In the U.S. media, the details will inevitably dribble out in dribs and drabs, colored in each case by whatever “angle” confirms the interlocutor’s biases. This is already the case, of course, with Trump-loathing “journalists” at CNN bashing the president for putting that murderous international pariah, Vladimir Putin, back on the world stage (“Trump’s getting ‘played’ once again by Putin!”), while right-leaning pundits at Fox News praised President Trump for his putative leadership and efforts to bring an end to a major European war (“at least Trump’s trying to do something, while Biden never even picked up the phone to call Putin!”).
Thus have the domestic battle lines been drawn: full disclosure, I lean toward the latter perspective. Yet as a historian who has spent all of this century studying conflict in this uniquely violent corner of the world (eastern Europe), I will try to lay out my thoughts with all the objectivity I can muster.
Let me begin by pointing out that the western narrative on most everything from Putin’s health to the status of the Russo-Ukraine war is often little more than gaslighting. Perhaps you think I just violated the pledge I made directly above, but consider: For years we’ve been assured that Putin is sick, he’s even dying; he has cancer or some other dreadful malady. And, yet, after all this time, he’s still here, and he looked vigorous and athletic as he walked down the red carpet to shake hands with President Trump. So scratch that little fairytale. We’re also told that endless rounds of sanctions are bringing Russia to its knees, but somehow it has managed since February 2022 to transition to something close to a total war footing, producing more drones, tanks, artillery, missiles and munitions than the U.S. and all other NATO countries combined.
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Author: Ruth King
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