Vladimir Socor
Moscow is in no hurry to hold talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on halting Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Kremlin expects its forces to continue, slowly but steadily, seizing more Ukrainian territory, grinding down the country’s infrastructure and housing stock with air strikes, setting preconditions for a social crisis in Ukraine this coming winter, and depleting the national morale. Trump shows himself eager to substantiate his “deal-maker” reputation by brokering a peace deal between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents even before his own presidential inauguration.
From Moscow’s perspective, however, holding such talks at this time could stymie its military operations in Ukraine before they attained their objectives. It would be entirely out of character with the Kremlin to enter negotiations with a major foreign leader who has not yet taken office. Moscow will, however, be ready to engage with Trump following his January 20 inauguration. By then, Russia also expects its military position to have grown stronger in Ukraine. The Kremlin could then turn Trump’s manifest eagerness for a deal into leverage against the US president.
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