Even if the war between Ukraine and Russia ends, Vladimir Putin will never choose a path that allows Donald Trump, especially the US, to hold the head high. Russia and the US have a long-standing rivalry.
During Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, there were speculations that Russian President Vladimir Putin favoured him. Trump’s victory triggered accusations of Russian intelligence agencies’ interference in the election outcome. I don’t know how much truth these allegations carry, for people also claim that the US intelligence agency CIA was involved in the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The veracity of such claims is rarely proven. However, in the current context, a heated debate now rages: Is Trump caught in Putin’s trap over Ukraine?You may recall how Trump would claim that within a week of winning the election, he would end the war in Ukraine! You may also remember how, during talks at the White House, Trump had humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even going so far as to say that without American help, Ukraine could not last a few hours against Russia. Trump wanted Ukraine to forget the territories it had already lost, and allow the US to extract rare minerals from those regions. He even dangled a partnership offer before Russia. Trump was confident that Zelenskyy had no other choice and would eventually agree. Zelenskyy was pressured, and for a moment it even seemed that Russia might relent. But Putin had entirely different plans. He wanted to assert his dominance before the world. On August 15, Trump and Putin met in Alaska -- yet even there, Putin emerged stronger. Americans were disturbed to see their own soldiers bowing to roll out the red carpet for Putin. The two leaders met warmly, but parted ways with cold formality. They were supposed to answer five questions from journalists, but that did not happen. They did not even dine together. Trump had been confident that Putin would sign the draft agreement he had brought along, which would strengthen Trump’s claim to the Nobel Peace Prize. But Putin is a master strategist. Trump may be a big businessman and see himself as a great statesman, but Putin is the product of an intelligence network. Who would be a better strategist than him?
After the Alaska meeting, I had written about Putin’s larger plan, the one Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had symbolically displayed through his T-shirt. On that shirt was printed the Russian abbreviation ‘CCCP’, meaning the former Soviet Union (USSR). The message to Trump was unmistakable: “We want to reclaim all the nations that once emerged from the Soviet Union”. That is precisely why Putin is unwilling to agree to any compromise and especially not to one in which Trump plays a role. Trump believed that Putin was his friend, but he forgot a basic tenet of politics: There are no permanent friends or foes, only interests. Trump has always described himself as a friend of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so why is he behaving like an adversary now? He did not hesitate even for a moment when he called India a dead economy.
When Trump’s attempts to curry favour with Russia failed, he dismissed Russia as a ‘paper tiger’. But the whole world knows Russia is anything but that! If it were merely a paper tiger, how could it have seized control of a quarter of Ukraine’s territory despite massive NATO aid to Kyiv? And remember what the US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on February 12 this year at the Brussels Defence Summit: “We all want a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But recovering the borders Ukraine had before 2014 is far from realistic. Pursuing that goal will only prolong the war and cause immense damage.” Did Trump not hear his own defence secretary’s speech? Surely he did, but how long does it take Trump to change his stance? When Trump called Russia a ‘paper tiger’, Putin reacted sharply and immediately. He shot back with a pointed question: “If Russia is a paper tiger, then what is NATO, that is North Atlantic Treaty Organisation?” Putin’s implication was clear: if NATO and the US are helping Ukraine so extensively, why then is Ukraine still losing ground? He issued a stern warning that if Europe further fuels the situation, Russia will not hesitate to take drastic measures. Putin also exposed Washington’s hypocrisy saying that the US itself purchases enriched uranium from Russia, and urges India and other nations to stop buying Russian energy products.
Naturally, the rift between Trump and Putin is bound to deepen. Putin has shattered Trump’s dream of earning wealth by extracting rare minerals from Russian-occupied Ukrainian lands and, more painfully for Trump, has crushed his cherished fantasy of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump can endure anything, but not the destruction of his Nobel dream.
I’d say... If Trump yearns for it so badly, give him a trophy named ‘Nobel’. Perhaps it will bring some peace to the world!.The author is the chairman, Editorial Board of Lokmat Media and former member of Rajya Sabha.