Much like his personality the Russian President Vladimir Putin made a very direct and decisive statement after Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony as the 47th President of the United States. Speaking at an interview Putin has claimed that the 2020 US election was “stolen” from Trump, and had he been the President of the US at the time, the Ukraine war could have been avoided.
“I cannot disagree with him that if he had been president, if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020, perhaps the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022 wouldn’t have happened,” Putin has said in an interview published by Russia 1 TV journalist Pavel Zarubin on Telegram on Friday.
In 2020 Donald Trump was defeated in extremely shady circumstances where the Democrats were accused of large scale voter fraud used to defeat the then sitting President Donald Trump.
Trump on his part did not accept his defeat and subsequently a crowd of his supporters stormed Capitol Hill in an event called an ‘insurrection’ by the Democrats. Following this Trump was removed as the President and Democrat leader Joe Biden took his place.
The Ukraine Russia clash began in 2022 while Joe Biden was President of the United States. Biden has had a very anti Russia stance and has been heavily funding as well as arming Ukraine to fight a long war with Moscow. While Putin has always maintained his stance to find a solution to the war the US under Biden had asked Putin to simply back away from Ukraine, disregarding the serious concerns Russia has in the region.
Putin’s Stance
“We have always said and I want to emphasise this once again that we are ready for negotiations on Ukrainian issuea” Putin said.
Putin also went on to praise Trump noting that extremely high or low oil prices would negatively affect both the Russian and American economies. “He is not only a smart person, but a pragmatic person,” Putin told state media. “I have a hard time imagining there will be decisions taken that are detrimental to the American economy,” he added.
Earlier in the day, when asked about Trump’s comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the idea, saying that the conflict is unrelated to oil prices. “The conflict is ongoing because of the threat to Russia’s national security, the threat to Russians living on those territories, and the refusal by the Americans and Europeans to listen to Russia’s security concerns,” Peskov said during a conference call with reporters
Peskov also confirmed that Putin is open to talks with Trump but is waiting for “signals” from Washington. “Putin is ready. We are waiting for signals,” Peskov said.
Just after his inauguration Donald Trump proceeded to offer a peace deal to end the long drawn Russia-Ukraine war. Calling the Russia narrative as a hoax Trump went on to praise Russia’s role in the second world war and urged to save lives by making a deal to end the war.
“I’m not looking to harm Russia. I have great respect for the Russian people and have always maintained a good relationship with President Putin, despite the Radical Left’s ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax. We must also remember that Russia played a crucial role in helping us win World War II, sacrificing nearly 60 million lives. That said, I intend to do Russia and President Putin a significant favor. End this war now—this senseless conflict is only going to worsen.”
With leaders of both these countries looking to find a solution it is perhaps feasible to expect some kind of a resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war that will soon be a three year long conflict by February 2025. Both Putin and Trump look to be moving towards a peace proposal that can be viable for all parties involved.
