Top Russian officials welcomed the end of Russia’s diplomatic isolation following President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska for his first visit to the U.S. since 2015.
The summit restored a "full-fledged mechanism for meetings" between the two presidents, without "ultimatums and threats," Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Aug. 16.
He said that Putin was able to outline Russia’s conditions for ending its invasion of Ukraine while Trump refused to escalate pressure on Russia for the time being. The U.S. leader said that he would not impose any new sanctions on Russia, for now.
"The meeting proved that negotiations are possible without preconditions and simultaneously with the continuation of the SMO (Special Military Operation," he said, using Russia’s propaganda term for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Putin received the red carpet treatment when he arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, signalling an end to Russia’s isolation, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on her Telegram channel.
"Western media are in a state that can be called insanity, bordering on complete madness: For three years, they have been talking about Russia’s isolation, and today they saw the red carpet that greeted the Russian President in the United States," Zakharova wrote.
After Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, Putin has faced international isolation, limiting his travel largely to close allies and regional partners such as China, Iran and North Korea, avoiding Western capitals entirely.
His travel options became even more limited after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 over the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children from occupied territories. The U.S. is not among the 125 countries that are party of the ICC and was not obliged to arrest Putin on its territory.
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