What Putin Really Wants from His Upcoming Meeting with Trump

[bannork]

Despite Russia’s high-profile annexation of four Ukrainian regions in 2022, analysts believe the true priority for Putin lies in keeping Ukraine out of NATO.

 

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said Putin is more concerned about Ukraine’s political and military alignment than about physical borders.

 

“The most important thing for Putin is NATO and these firm guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO,” she explained.

 

For Putin, this means either a neutral Ukraine backed by Western assurances or a government in Kyiv more friendly to Moscow.

 

Analyst Explains: What Putin Really Wants from His Upcoming Meeting with Trump

[Rimmer]

Putin is stuck in a war he started but can’t seem to end. Pulling out of Ukraine would shatter his image of strength, invite internal backlash, and possibly trigger the political unraveling of his regime. But dragging the war on bleeds Russia economically, militarily, and diplomatically. Sanctions bite, casualties mount, and global isolation deepens.

 

It’s a classic autocrat’s paradox: peace means humiliation, but war means slow-motion collapse.

He’s gambling that time will wear down the West before it breaks him. But each day the war continues, the cracks in the Kremlin get harder to hide.

 

While Putin projects iron control, behind closed doors the Kremlin isn’t as unified as it looks. Whispers of doubt are growing louder among elites,  oligarchs losing fortunes, generals losing troops, and technocrats watching the economy sink under sanctions.

 

Nobody dares challenge him openly yet, but loyalty in Russia often runs on fear and profit, and both are running low. The longer the war drags on with no real gains, the more some in his inner circle may start weighing their own survival over his.

 

History tells us: Russian strongmen fall fast, and always from within.