If there’s one thing that commentators from the West and Russian Kremlin-friendly media seem to agree upon, it’s that the bilateral summit in Alaska is already, before it has even started, a diplomatic success for Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president is known to feel personally offended by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He’s longing for Russia to be respected and seen as a global superpower again.
According to the country’s commentators, Russia is indeed back on the world stage.
The website 1prime.ru is already celebrating: “Putin’s victory.”
Moscow-based daily newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets (MK) writes that the West’s strategy of isolation through sanctions hasn’t worked: “On the contrary, [… Russia] has turned out to be a player that is taken into account and consulted.”
Russian media also welcomed the choice of venue — which they see as symbolic.
MK is calling Alaska “an obvious example of the movability of state borders and the change of ownership of large territories.”
The state was sold to the US by Tsarist Russia in the 19th century.
Now, Moscow is reportedly asking Kyiv to hand over four Ukrainian oblasts that Russia is partially occupying: Donetsk and Luhansk — which form the Donbas region — and the oblasts Zaporizhzhia and Kherson further south.
Kyiv has refused to cede the territories. Freezing the frontline in these oblasts could be on the table, though.
Meanwhile, Russian newspapers are not only rejoicing that Europe and Ukraine will be shut out from the Alaska talks. Commentators even seem irritated that Europeans are trying to weigh in.
Kommersant, another Russian daily, features the headline: “Dancing around Alaska — Europe and Ukraine move to get between the US and Russia.”
As if the main topic on the summit agenda weren’t Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — in the heart of Europe.
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