Putin will not make concessions while Trump’s public ultimatum is in effect, but will try to maintain communication – political analyst
Russia will not make any concessions in the near future in response to Donald Trump’s public ultimatum. This was stated to OstroV by Ukrainian political analyst and director of the Center for Political Studies "Penta", Volodymyr Fesenko.
"As long as this public ultimatum is in effect, putin will not make any obvious or real concessions to Trump. Because that would look like a victory for Trump and a sign of weakness from putin. And authoritarian leaders cannot afford that kind of behavior", - he explained.
In the expert's opinion, even Iran and North Korea do not respond to ultimatums from the U.S., and russia will act in a similar way.
"In the near future—at least for the next 10–12 days, and effectively until the beginning of September—there will be no concessions from russia", - he added.
At the same time, Fesenko noted, putin will not "burn bridges" in relations with Trump and the U.S. in general.
"I think he will attempt to continue negotiations in Istanbul. The very fact of their resumption was already an attempt to show that he is not against dialogue. But that does not mean he is ready to comply with Trump’s ultimatum. The main thing is to demonstrate a willingness to negotiate", - the political analyst emphasized.
He does not rule out that the kremlin will try to restore informal contacts with Trump through trusted intermediaries.
"Through Kirill Dmitriev or, for example, Vitkoff, informal contacts may be activated—to reduce tensions and find a constructive option for negotiations between the U.S. and russia. But this will be non-public, unofficial, informal. There will be no official response to trump’s formal ultimatum from russia. That’s highly likely", - Fesenko concluded.