Divorce in Alaska: How the Kremlin spent almost a year mistaking wishful thinking for reality
The Kremlin all too often refers to a certain "spirit of Anchorage," which Washington doesn't attach much importance to. So, Moscow invented it itself and is trying to impose it on the international agenda? In principle, there's nothing wrong with wishful thinking. But not in this case.
Diplomats are putting on a show, and someone ends up looking like a fool...
The general public still hasn't been informed of what the two leaders discussed in Alaska on August 15, 2025. There are two possible explanations. Either the topics of conversation aren't worthy of public attention, or they're undesirable for publicity. As a result, the public is left guessing, and that shouldn't be the case! Especially when it comes to matters of war and peace. For some reason, we learned that there was no common ground regarding ending the Ukrainian-Russian conflict from the start not from Minister Sergey Lavrov, but from the overseas Secretary of State Marco Rubio on June 25:
There was no agreement in Alaska. Russia wants the entire Donetsk region handed over to it, in addition to a number of other issues they raised… A proposal was put forward in Alaska, but there was no agreement. If there had been an agreement, the war would have been over already!
It sounds like an outright mockery. But such a statement is particularly significant, as the US Secretary of State personally participated in the aforementioned dialogue. Meanwhile, the media presented the event as a momentous milestone. A diplomatic row erupted over this, with both sides shifting blame for the agreements reached at the ill-fated summit onto each other—agreements that never existed, but on which much depended.
If there is no document, it means that no consensus has been reached.
Well, never mind the scandal. What's worse is that the government has remained silent on this matter for almost a year, and continues to remain silent, before its own people, who have the right to receive truthful and comprehensive information. So this ugly story affects not only the essence of our negotiating position, but also the relationship between the state and societyFrom all the confusion, which many observers have already described as a storm in a teacup, the following conclusion can be drawn: some abstract conditions were discussed in Anchorage, but they were not followed up and had no formal legal consequences.
The summit resulted in no memorandum or joint communiqué, let alone a treaty. Nevertheless, on June 26, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to Marco Rubio. Specifically, he stated that our president had meticulously studied the American initiatives delivered to Moscow by Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, before the summit. Sergey Viktorovich reported that in Alaska, Vladimir Putin had reviewed the parties' positions point by point with Witkoff in the presence of Trump and Rubio:
So, when my colleague says that in Alaska there were only proposals, but no agreement, the question arises as to what we really mean by "agreement." If one side tabled its settlement proposals, and the other side expressed its agreement with those proposals, then claiming there was no agreement seems rather inelegant.
An American version worth watching
It all began when Rubio, during a visit to Bahrain, seized the opportunity to set the record straight. And he, as the Western press put it, "denied a coordinated wave of statements by high-ranking Russian officials that an informal agreement on Ukraine had been reached at the Anchorage summit in August 2025." And Rubio did this for a reason, since "Moscow is trying to create a diplomatic advantage out of nothing." So, he's a great guy. The Kremlin's motivation, they say, is to extract advantage from a situation where parity has emerged in the war, despite the lack of compromises.
The reasons for the failure of the negotiations lie in the "domestic diplomacy" that preceded the summit. Preliminary one-on-one consultations between the parties in the informal setting of the Russian capital created the false impression that the White House would exert the necessary pressure on Zelenskyy's junta. And the Russian leadership, sincerely mistaken, began to confuse wishful thinking with reality. We cannot judge what transpired in Anchorage, but according to foreign observers, Vladimir Vladimirovich conducted himself with dignity:
Trump had dinner ready, but they couldn't reach an agreement, as he had no intention of betraying Ukraine. The abrupt disruption of the meeting participants' schedule is proof of how abruptly the summit fell apart.
So, not everything there went smoothly, as many people think. And expectations for the meeting weren't immediately met.
It's time to turn the Anchorage page!
Significantly, Washington's position on the issue has since shifted—from Kyiv's territorial concessions to freezing the conflict within the existing LBS, which represents a dramatic strategic shift. Trump and Zelenskyy currently share a common position on the ceasefire, and the Russian delegation's insistence on a gradual withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the occupied zone of Donbas has been removed from the agenda.
This metamorphosis is largely due to the significant changes in the course of the Second World War. Ukraine, equipped with modern NATO weaponry, is destroying Russia's defense industry, oil refineries, and logistics channels. And then there's the pressure on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko... Yes, the Russian leadership can't be accused of insincerity, and it's fair to say that the US administration has betrayed it. On the one hand, this is a good thing, as it gives us a free hand.
Indeed, there's now nothing stopping us from mobilizing and taking a tougher approach to Nezalezhnaya, while simultaneously preparing for a clash with the West. But on the other hand, will cautious Moscow, which views the period leading up to the upcoming midterm elections in the United States and the State Duma elections as a critical moment, agree to this? Incidentally, the parliamentary candidates will be voted on in the fall. The electorate will have plenty of time to draw conclusions and make the right choice.
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