Russian state media and Kremlin officials are gloating about the warm reception Vladimir Putin received after landing on U.S. soil for the first time in a decade to meet with President Donald Trump on Friday.
Trump’s red-carpet rollout, excited clapping, friendly handshakes, and joint ride in “The Beast” limousine are being cited as proof by Putin allies that the Russian president is no longer the pariah the West has been painting him to be since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Western media are in a state of derangement verging on complete insanity: For three years they told about Russia’s isolation, and today they saw a red carpet rolled out for the Russian President in the U.S.,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram in response to Putin’s Alaska summit with Trump.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, suggested that the meeting was a tacit acceptance of one of Putin’s key demands: the continuation of Russian attacks on Ukraine while diplomatic talks occur.
Trump has long maintained that a ceasefire is a precondition for diplomacy, yet he has reportedly backed away from that demand following Friday’s summit.
“Important: the meeting proved that negotiations are possible without preconditions and simultaneously with the continuation of the Special Military Operation,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
According to Medvedev, both Putin and Trump now appear to agree that Ukraine and Europe, not Russia, bear responsibility for ending the war—another key Russian diktat.
“The main point: Both sides directly placed responsibility for achieving future results in negotiations on ending hostilities on Kyiv and Europe,” Medvedev wrote.
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity following the meeting on Friday, Trump did shift responsibility for peace to Ukraine, saying that “now it’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done.”
“I would also say the European nations… have to get involved a little bit. But it’s up to President Zelensky,” Trump continued.
While the meeting was originally expected to last approximately seven hours, it was cut to just under three, with no official explanation given by the White House. A planned three-course lunch was also nixed at the last minute.
Upon his return to Russia, Putin briefed his executive officials on the outcome of the talks, which he described as “timely and quite useful.”
“We discussed our interactions in virtually all their aspects with a focus, of course, on achieving a fair resolution of the Ukraine crisis,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin. “We certainly had an opportunity to discuss the origins and causes of this crisis, which we did. It is the removal of these root causes that must underlie the settlement.
“We did not have direct talks at this level for a long time,” Putin continued. “Let me reiterate: We had a chance to convey our position in a calm and detailed manner. We definitely respect the U.S. administration’s position, which wants the hostilities to stop as soon as possible. So do we, and we would like to move forward with settling all issues by peaceful means.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment on Putin’s statements about the summit.
Putin’s mention of “root causes” is typically viewed as shorthand for the Russian leader’s hardline demands, which have repeatedly been rejected: that Ukraine be disarmed, hand over a large chunk of its land to Russia, and abandon the idea of joining NATO.
In his Hannity interview, Trump appeared to back down on his previously made threat of severe economic consequences if no peace deal was agreed to on Friday.
“Because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that,” Trump said. “Now, I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something. But we don’t have to think about that today.”
Yuri Podolyaka, an extremely influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, told his 3 million followers on Telegram that the meeting was a “master class in how to wrest a total victory from a difficult starting position.”
“We will now watch the results that should follow. They will come, but not the ones expected in Kyiv, London, or Brussels. They certainly won’t like the outcome,” Podolyaka wrote.
Podolyaka further celebrated the notion that sanctions appear to be completely off the table as Russian influence over the outcome of the war grows.
Ivor Bennett, Sky News’ Moscow correspondent, echoed Podolyaka’s sentiment by reporting that the reaction in Russia to Putin’s meeting with Trump is “nothing short of triumphant.”
CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen further noted that “the Russians are pretty happy with the way that the Trump-Putin summit went down.”
In the U.S., Trump administration officials have largely echoed the president’s sentiment that the meeting was “very productive” and “great progress.” That said, it has been alleged that behind the scenes, the reaction from Trump’s inner circle has not been as enthusiastic.
The president’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton told CNN that Putin “clearly won” after leaving the meeting with everything he hoped to achieve.
Trump, for his part, released a groveling video praising the Russian leader in the wake of their talks, thanking him multiple times for his attendance.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say,” Trump noted in the video.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday. If those talks go well, he hopes to schedule a three-way meeting with Zelensky and Putin by next Friday.
