WP: Putin could take advantage of Trump’s eagerness to reach a deal and use a face-to-face meeting

Photo: nbcnews.com

President Donald Trump intends to meet “very soon” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine, the president said, adding that he believes “there’s a very good chance” of reaching an agreement.

It was unclear, however, whether Putin had offered any concessions to Trump in exchange for a meeting, which a White House official said could come as early as next week, ‘The Washington Post’ notes.

A meeting between the two leaders would be a significant win for Putin after weeks of Trump’s verbal attacks on him. Trump repeatedly has said that while he and Putin have good conversations, those are followed by renewed Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Trump’s openness to meeting with Putin came after a meeting earlier in the day in Moscow between Putin and the president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.

In an interview on Fox Business, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that as a result of Witkoff’s meeting, “I think for the first time, perhaps since this administration began, we have some concrete examples of the kinds of things that Russia would ask for in order to end the war.”

“Now, they may not be the conditions Ukraine can accept or, frankly, that others would accept. But at least we have something to work off of,” he said.

Typically, summit meetings take place to seal agreements that have been worked out by lower-level officials. Trump, however, has long believed in his ability to personally negotiate agreements.

Skeptics of Trump’s approach warned that Putin could take advantage of Trump’s eagerness to reach a deal and use a face-to-face meeting to enlist the U.S. in putting pressure on Ukrainian Zelensky to make major concessions to Moscow.

The announcement of a possible Trump-Putin meeting capped a day of mixed signals. Trump praised Witkoff’s meeting with Putin, writing on his social media platform that the session was “highly productive” and that “Great progress was made!”

Several hours after Witkoff met Putin, however, Trump doubled tariffs on India to 50 percent, moving on his earlier threat to impose penalties on trading partners that have helped sustain the Russian economy and the Kremlin’s war machine, especially by continuing to buy Russian oil.

In addition to hitting India, Trump’s order said the U.S. could increase tariffs on other countries buying oil from Moscow — such as China, another major importer of Russian oil. At the White House event Wednesday, Trump said he might add additional countries to the sanctions list in coming weeks.

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