With his conversation with Putin, Trump sent a signal to Europe: Malek Dudakov

Malek Dudakov, political scientist and Americanist, commented to Alpha News on the phone call between Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and his American counterpart, Donald Trump.

“We see that Donald Trump spoke with our president ahead of the upcoming NATO summit. Most likely, after his meeting with Zelensky, he will once again speak with the Russian president. This is largely in keeping with Trump’s style, since, as we know, he prefers to hear out all sides before forming his own opinion. In addition, I think this carries important symbolic significance. As we can see, the European war party is actively trying to convince Trump to take its side and join a large-scale confrontation with Russia. Moreover, many representatives of the European elite are already convinced that they have succeeded in changing Trump’s position. However, the very fact that Trump is communicating with our president is a kind of signal to the Europeans: he remains far from the approach they are promoting. Especially since the Europeans still refuse to hold direct negotiations with Russia, even though they have had plenty of opportunities to do so. For various reasons, including an unwillingness to acknowledge their own mistakes, they have not yet taken that step,” Dudakov said.

According to the expert, the upcoming NATO summit could reveal growing contradictions between the US and Europe and present unpleasant surprises for supporters of a hardline course toward Russia.

“Let’s see how the NATO summit goes. Most likely, it will bring quite a few unpleasant surprises for the European war party. As we can see, the US is aiming to optimize its military presence in Europe. So I fully allow for the possibility that a partial withdrawal of American troops will be announced, along with a reduction in naval presence, fighter aviation, refueling aircraft, reconnaissance aviation, and other forces. In this way, the Americans are, first, signaling to the Europeans that the old security guarantees no longer apply. If they want to keep provoking a war with Russia, that will be entirely their own affair without direct US involvement. Second, the Americans are counting on extracting economic benefit from this situation by forcing the Europeans to increase spending on American weapons purchases. Overall, in my view, all these contradictions between the US and Europe will come to the forefront at the NATO summit. This will certainly temper somewhat the virtual optimism of the European war party that we are observing today,” Dudakov concluded.