Has the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin gone off the rails? A popular Russian newspaper thinks so. It turned to trains to illustrate the current state of US-Russian ties. A head-on collision seems unavoidable," declared tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets recently. The Trump locomotive and the Putin locomotive are speeding towards each other. And neither is about to turn off or stop and reverse." For the 'Putin locomotive', it's full steam ahead, with the so-called 'Special Military Operation': Russia's war in Ukraine. The Kremlin leader has shown no desire to end hostilities and declare a long-term ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the 'Trump locomotive' has been accelerating efforts to pressure Moscow into ending the fighting: announcing deadlines, ultimatums, threats of additional sanctions against Russia and hefty tariffs on Russia's trading partners, like India and China. Add to all of that the two US nuclear submarines which President Trump claims he's repositioned closer to Russia. When you switch from talking about locomotives to nuclear subs, you know things are serious.
But does that mean the White House is really on a "collision course" with the Kremlin over Ukraine? Or is a visit to Moscow this week by Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, a sign that for all the posturing, a deal between Russia and America to end the fighting is still possible? In the early weeks of the second Trump presidency, Moscow and Washington appeared well on track to reboot their bilateral relations. No hint of a head-on collision. Far from it. At times it seemed as if Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump were in the same carriage, moving in the same direction.
In February the United States sided with Russia at the United Nations, opposing a European-drafted resolution that had condemned Russia's "aggression" in Ukraine. In a telephone call that month the two presidents talked about visiting each other's countries. It felt like a Putin-Trump summit could happen any day.PRESS SERVICE OF THE 24 MECHANIZED BRIGADE HANDOUT/EPA/Shutterstock The U.S. backed Russia at the UN in February, voting against a European resolution that condemned Russia's aggression in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Trump administration was exerting pressure on Kyiv, not on Moscow.
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