This is only part of the full article. Note the reader reaction at the end. They sense a Red Ruse.
"Russian politicians and analysts saw a significant shift toward Russia’s rehabilitation by Washington in Tuesday’s call, despite Moscow’s war on Ukraine, effectively vindicating Putin’s decision to invade.
“I can say with a high degree of confidence that Presidents Putin and Trump understand each other well, trust each other and intend to gradually move along the path of normalizing Russian-American relations,” Peskov (Putin's Press Secretary) said in a media call Wednesday.
“As for the new world order, President Putin has always talked about the need to build relations based on mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual benefit. This is what is happening now,” he said, saying the moves come after the Biden administration had “spoiled” the relationship.
Former Russian president and now deputy chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev focused on the fact that Ukraine and Europe were left out of a conversation crucial to both of their interests.
“The phone call between Presidents Putin and Trump proved a well-known idea — there is only Russia and America in the dining room. On the menu: light appetisers — Brussels sprouts, British fish and chips and Paris rooster,” he wrote in social media. “The main course is a Kiev-style cutlet. Enjoy your meal!”
Putin has long sought to overturn the postwar liberal world order led by the United States and its allies, and reshape it to one more governed by a handful of great powers exerting control over their spheres of influence.
Alexander Dugin, a political thinker who has long promoted Russia’s war against Ukraine, said Tuesday that it was clear that Trump was closer to Putin than to his Western allies.
“That is obvious. He is much more conservative. He is in favor of traditional values. He’s in favor of the patriotism of the nation, and I define that as the great-powers world order. Putin and Trump coincide in accepting this model instead of liberal globalism,” he told CNN.
Trump spoke at length to Fox News in an interview aired after the call and said that the United States was “a much different country than we were a few months ago” and would now be friendly with both Russia and China, in an apparent reversal of Washington’s traditional foreign-policy position that they were U.S. rivals. “They’re probably friendly now, but we’re going to be friendly with both.”
He also emphasized the trade deals he expected with Russia after a peace agreement, indicating that Ukraine was one of many subjects that he discussed with Putin.
“With Russia, we don’t have that much trade, and they’d like to, and we’d like to. They have a lot of valuable things for us, including very big forms of rare earth,” he said.
Russian political analyst Alexandra Filippenko said that Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was “vindicated in many ways” by the talks.
“The lack of pressure on Russian withdrawal suggests Trump is treating Russia as a necessary partner,” she continued, adding that “Trump’s goal is to extract economic benefits from Russia, not to form a deep alliance. And Putin is happy with this formula.”
Kyiv officials, meanwhile, were left with few details on the partial ceasefire deal, including when it would begin. Although teams in the White House and Kyiv had talked, an ensuing call between Zelensky and Trump was not scheduled until nearly 24 hours later.
Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on foreign policy, called the partial ceasefire proposal a “dangerous trap” set by Putin to impose conditions that would weaken Ukraine and strengthen Russia.
“It is bad that they have delayed this,” he told The Washington Post. “If I were in Trump’s place, I think it would have been right to speak with Zelensky immediately.”
Merezhko said the lengthy time between calls and Putin not agreeing to the full ceasefire after Zelensky had agreed makes Ukraine look weak. “It means we are not in an equal position, not in an equal situation before Trump.”
Key questions also remain over the differences between the two versions of Tuesday’s call from the Kremlin and White House.
The White House claimed that the partial ceasefire would halt attacks on energy and infrastructure — which would mean no attacks on bridges, roads, ports and important facilities. The Kremlin said it applied only to energy infrastructure.
The Kremlin version stated that Russia had insisted Ukraine be denied Western weapons — or any rearming — during a ceasefire, without similar conditions for Moscow, which would enable Russia to reconstitute its forces but not Ukraine.
Trump, however, insisted in comments to Fox News on Tuesday that military aid to Ukraine was not discussed at all. “We didn’t talk about aid, we didn’t talk about aid at all.” The next day, Peskov stated that the issue of arms deliveries was discussed.
Zelensky said from Helsinki that Russia’s insistence on stripping Ukraine of military aid and intelligence indicated Putin’s desire to weaken Ukraine.
“Yes, Russia will want our partners to stop helping us because that would weaken Ukraine’s position. But it looks very strange. If Putin is not planning to continue fighting against us and truly wants peace, then why would he fear the Ukrainian army?” he said.
Ahead of the call, Putin also made clear that he would maintain claims to large parts of Ukraine, beyond those occupied by his army. Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that he told industrialists in a closed session that he would rule out the return of any territory to Ukraine and would also demand that the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia be recognized as Russian.
Zelensky described that as a nonstarter. “For us, the red line is the recognition of Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories as Russian. We will not agree to that,” he said.
Every year, he said, Putin “has either been waging war somewhere or destroying the lives of other nations. We must protect our people from this.”
Serhiy Morgunov contributed to this report.
"What readers are saying:
The comments overwhelmingly criticize Donald Trump's handling of the situation between Russia and Ukraine, portraying him as being manipulated by Vladimir Putin. Many commenters express concern that Trump is compromising U.S. interests and Ukraine's sovereignty for personal gain
This summary is AI-generated. AI can make mistakes and this summary is not a replacement for reading the comments."