Saudi Talks: Insights from the US-Russia delegation meeting and its implications for Trump.

The meeting place for the American and Russian delegations in Riyadh was chosen to be one of the palaces of the Saudi royal family - Diriyah. The negotiations began with a half-hour delay at 10:30 AM Kyiv time and lasted just over four hours. The American delegation included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President's National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and the President's Special Envoy for the Middle East, Steve Whitecoff. The Russian side was represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov.

The third representative from the Kremlin - the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, who is originally from Kyiv, did not participate directly in the official meeting but was present nearby. He made a series of statements ahead of the meeting. "I believe it is very important to build bridges. The relationships between the U.S. and Russia are crucial for peace," Dmitriev stated in a CNN comment, adding that before the main meeting of the two delegations, he managed to hold "several meetings with the Trump team" in Riyadh, without specifying with whom and what issues were discussed. According to Dmitriev, American counterparts were "very surprised" to learn that U.S. businesses had lost over $300 billion by leaving the Russian market during the "SVO." "Finding joint economic paths and positive solutions to issues is mainly important for the U.S. and many other countries that are beginning to understand that the Russian market is very attractive and needs to be engaged with. Therefore, we hope for a positive discussion, a positive dialogue, and we certainly see that President Donald Trump is actively addressing a large number of issues in the world," he added.

Thus, as we can see, Putin's envoys decided to play their trump card by promoting their favorite topic concerning Trump – money and his personal vanity.

Returning, however, to the meeting of the U.S. and aggressor country delegations, which was held behind closed doors without the presence of the press. Following the negotiations, Putin's aide Ushakov reported that the meeting "went well." "It is still difficult to say that Russia and the U.S. are coming closer, but the conversation about this took place," admitted the Kremlin appointee. "There was a very serious discussion on all the issues we wanted to address. We agreed to take each other's interests into account while promoting bilateral relations. Moscow and Washington are interested in this," Ushakov added.

According to him, the date for a meeting between Trump and Putin has not yet been determined, but it is unlikely to happen next week, as some Western media reported. "There needs to be intensive work by the delegations of both countries. We are ready for this, but it is still too early to talk about specific periods or specific dates for a leaders' meeting," he stated.

As for future negotiations on a peaceful resolution, as Yuri Ushakov noted, both sides will need to form negotiating teams: "The Americans need to appoint their representatives, and we will appoint ours, and then, probably, the work will begin. The decision on who will be part of the negotiating team from the Russian side will be made by Vladimir Putin."

Shortly after Ushakov's statements, the U.S. State Department published an official position consisting of five points regarding the future restoration of relations between the White House and the Kremlin. This includes creating a consultation mechanism to eliminate "irritating factors" in U.S.-Russia relations, appointing working groups to explore pathways for ending the "conflict in Ukraine," establishing a foundation for cooperation on issues of mutual interest in the areas of geopolitics, economics, and investments after the cessation of hostilities, as well as continuing consultations. The head of the American delegation in Riyadh, Marco Rubio, later provided a detailed response regarding the peaceful resolution, indicating that Donald Trump aims to conclude everything "fairly" and prevent a resurgence of war in two to three years. According to Mr. Rubio, the EU should also be at the negotiating table at some point, as it has imposed sanctions against Russia.

Lastly, the head of the Foreign Ministry commented on the meeting. In his speech at a special briefing, Lavrov stated that the parties "not only listened but also heard each other." "I have reason to believe that the American side has come to better understand our position," emphasized the chief Russian diplomat.

He added that both sides recognize that the national interests of the two countries "will not always coincide," but they agree that it is important to regulate the discrepancies in positions and avoid confrontation of any kind. Additionally, Lavrov confirmed the State Department's statements that the parties will soon form teams for peaceful resolution. According to him, Moscow will name its chief negotiator immediately after Washington designates its representative.

Following this, Trump made statements accusing Zelensky and Ukraine of not wanting to pay for assistance. A purely Christian approach...

Political scientist Viktor Nebozhenko points out that Trump's urgency and acute need for a victory to bolster his influence in U.S. domestic politics, where there is a growing wave of open and concealed resistance to his conservative revolution, is evident. In his view, Putin, on the contrary, will do everything possible to slow down the negotiation process, leading it down false paths and dead ends.

"Putin still hopes for a significant success in the war with Ukraine and believes in a miracle victory, so there will likely not be a quick and successful deal as Trump desires, because it is dangerous and unprofitable for Putin to abruptly end the war and risk his allied relationships with China, which the U.S. is counting on. A prolonged negotiation process will be accompanied by bluffing, flashes of aggression, and provocations from the Kremlin against Ukraine and its allies in Europe. China also does not like that the negotiation process is happening without its participation. It justifiably fears that Moscow might betray Beijing for concessions from the U.S. in Ukraine, which Putin will present on May 9 as his victory in the war. Therefore, if Trump does not succeed in making a deal with Putin at the expense of Europe and Ukraine within a short time, Beijing will manage to get involved in the negotiation process. If Trump is fortunate and manages to force Ukraine and Russia to make concessions, a quick victory at the negotiations (a deal) will not lead to lasting peace, and the truce will be fragile and fake, as a result of the 'one-time compromise' everyone will lose except Trump. Trump's America will seize leadership in exporting international chaos from Putin's Russia. And then it will all have to start over – seeking a peaceful agreement in Ukraine, but now taking into account the interests of China, the U.S., Europe, and Russia," models the situation Viktor Nebozhenko.

Shortly after the U.S.-Russian negotiations in Riyadh, Trump effectively acted as an advocate for Putin's Russia, claiming that the aggressor country did not actually want to destroy Kyiv, and if they had wanted to, they would have done so. Furthermore, the old-new master of the Oval Office noted that Russia is capable of "very quickly" destroying Ukrainian cities by 100%, including the capital, but does not want to do so. The leading Republican also stated that Ukraine had a full three years to sit down at the negotiating table and "should not have started this at all." And the cherry on top of Trump's cake is that Ukraine should have long held elections, as Zelensky's rating supposedly stands at 4% (which was refuted by KMIS, showing a sufficiently high level of support for the president – 57% of Ukrainians trust or mostly trust Zelensky).

Overall, Mr. Trump spoke a lot, distorting the real facts to the maximum. The only thing that may provide some comfort is that Trump firmly (at least for now) stands on the position of not lifting sanctions on the aggressor country until the ink on the peace agreement has dried.

The next day, Trump continued his attack, calling Zelensky a "dictator without elections" and accusing Kyiv of unwillingness to conduct peace negotiations.

Despite all this, experts believe that today it is not worth, so to speak, throwing ashes on one's head, thinking that we have been completely betrayed and that everything is lost.

"All these statements from Trump are unlikely to be perceived as anything more than a noise irritant in the pursuit of achieving a result as quickly as possible, even if it is short-term. This is confirmed by his remark, 'I can meet with Putin by the end of the month.' Trump needs a very quick result; he needs to quickly gain the title of peacemaker. For some reason, he decided that he could achieve it faster and easier in Ukraine than anywhere else (like in Gaza). Yes, he has already realized that the only thing he can persuade Putin to do quickly is a ceasefire (without specifying duration and conditions) in exchange for immediate elections in Ukraine. In other words, in Putin's calculations, in exchange for gaining political control over Ukraine instead of military control. And all of Trump's statements are aimed precisely at this. However, here too, Ukraine's task does not change: simply to withstand yet another emotional information storm. And to wait until rational interactions involving all interested parties finally begin," notes Alexey Golobutsky, deputy head of the Situations Modeling Agency.

Meanwhile, President Zelensky postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia, scheduled for February 19, in order to not legitimize the meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh. While in Turkey on February 18, the current master of Bankova stated that he had not been invited to the meeting of the American and Russian deleg