Putin ‘ready for talks’ with Trump on Ukraine war | Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin has said he is ready to discuss the war in Ukraine with Donald Trump and suggested it would be a good idea for them to meet.

In his first comments since Trump issued threats to inflict economic damage on Russia if it failed to end the war in Ukraine, Putin struck a positive tone towards the US president.

Putin told a Russian state television journalist: “We believe the statements of the current president about his readiness to work together. We are always open to this and ready for negotiations.

“It would be better for us to meet, based on today’s realities, to talk calmly.”

Putin went on to describe his relationship with Trump as “businesslike, pragmatic and trustworthy”.

He added that negotiations with Ukraine were complicated by the fact that its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had signed a decree barring him from holding talks with Putin.

In what appears to be an attempt to curry favor with Trump, Putin repeated the US president’s claim that he would have prevented the war that started in Ukraine in 2022 and parroted Trump’s debunked claim that the US election in 2020 was “stolen” from him.

In the days since his inauguration, Trump has repeatedly called for a quick resolution to the war in Ukraine, which is now entering its third year, and has expressed his readiness to meet Putin “immediately”.

In his nightly video address late Friday, Zelenskyy said Putin was seeking to “manipulate” Trump.

“He is trying to manipulate the American president’s desire to achieve peace. I am convinced that no further Russian manipulations will succeed,” he said.

Trump’s attempts to persuade Putin to negotiate have been bolstered by threats to escalate pressure on Russia’s already strained economy, including imposing sanctions and tariffs if Moscow fails to “make a deal” to end the war.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday night, Trump called on Opec to depress global oil prices as a way to hit a vital revenue stream for the Kremlin.

“Right now the price is high enough that that war will continue,” he said.

Oil and gas revenues have been Russia’s main source of cash, accounting for a third to a half of federal budget revenue over the past decade.

On Friday, Putin downplayed Trump’s economic threats, saying “excessively” low oil prices were bad for both the United States and Russia.

In response to Trump’s initial approach, Moscow officials are choosing their words carefully while maintaining a firm stance on their demands to end the war.

“We don’t see anything new here,” Peskov said Thursday when asked about Trump’s economic ultimatum.

Still, Trump’s threats appear to have sparked frustration among Moscow’s elite, with some politicians and nationalists reacting negatively, sentiments amplified on state television.

A source in the Russian foreign policy establishment said: “Putin does not like public threats. He wants to be spoken to as an equal. It is clear that any agreement will take some time.”

Some observers believe that Putin may view Trump’s economic warning with skepticism.

Throughout the war, Putin has expressed confidence that Russia’s economy has withstood Western sanctions better than expected by most economists, both inside and outside Russia.

Yet cracks in the economy are beginning to show as Russia struggles with runaway inflation while pouring billions into defense.

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Despite this, many in the elite believe that Russia’s ability to withstand at least another year of conflict means Putin is unlikely to let the economy influence his decisions.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official and Russian economics expert, wrote in a piece for Foreign Affairs that “simmering economic problems are unlikely to overwhelm the forces that keep Putin determined to continue the war in Ukraine”.

Russia has made gradual but steady advances in eastern Ukraine despite record casualties. Kyiv is facing a personnel crisis, prompting the Biden administration to call on Ukraine to lower its mobilization age from 25 to 18.

Putin last outlined his position on peace talks during his annual wrap-up conference, demanding that the West lift all sanctions and that Ukraine withdraw from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

He also insisted that Ukraine abandon its Nato aspirations, become a permanent neutral state and drastically reduce its military forces – moves that would effectively strip Ukraine of its sovereignty.

It remains unclear how flexible Putin is with these demands.

A source briefed on top-level Kremlin discussions about possible negotiating tactics suggested Moscow was curious about potential overtures from the United States but may have little interest in signing a deal. The source suggested Moscow could keep talks going to prolong the fighting while changing its terms for peace.

Several hardliners close to Putin have recently said that Ukraine’s capitulation is the only acceptable outcome.

On Friday, businessman Konstantin Malofeev, one of Russia’s most prominent conservative voices, echoed Putin’s maximalist calls for peace. “We must achieve a victory that will eliminate the Ukrainian state as such. We are of course ready to stop the military action, but only on terms that ensure our security for many years to come,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Although Trump has not provided a detailed plan to end the war, his running mate, JD Vance, has suggested that Trump could push for a “heavily fortified” demilitarized zone at the countries’ borders and freeze the war along the current front lines.

Trump’s return to the White House has revived discussions about the possibility of Western peacekeepers being stationed in Ukraine to help maintain a ceasefire.

But the Russian Foreign Ministry has called the idea “unacceptable”, while also rejecting calls to freeze the war along the front lines.

Still, the situation is still in flux, and this week Trump made statements that appeared to be aimed at reassuring Moscow.

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, he described President Zelenskyy as “no angel” and suggested that the Ukrainian leader shared part of the blame for the outbreak of the war. “He should not have allowed this war to happen.”