October 24, 2025

Before the Alaska summit of Presidents Putin and Trump on August 15, 2025,  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov predicted that the meeting would last at least six to seven hours, adding that Moscow expected a “productive” meeting. The meeting lasted only three hours and did not result in a ceasefire, the West’s top priority. Nonetheless, the joint press conference was held as planned, no questions were taken, and Mr. Trump said very little beyond mentioning that it was an extremely productive meeting. Mr. Putin, as usual, reiterated that the “root causes” of the Ukraine conflict need to be eliminated before a full peace deal can be reached.