FT: Putin's lengthy historical monologue in Alaska angered Trump
During his meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska on 15 August, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin launched into a lengthy historical monologue that angered the US president, forcing him to raise his voice and even threaten to leave.
The Financial Times says Putin began recalling medieval rulers such as Rurik of Novgorod and Yaroslav the Wise, as well as the 17th-century Cossack chieftain Bohdan Khmelnytskyi – figures he frequently invokes to argue that Ukraine and Russia are supposedly "one nation".
A visibly unsettled Trump raised his voice several times and at one point threatened to walk out. He eventually cut the meeting short and cancelled a planned working lunch, during which broader delegations were expected to discuss economic cooperation and trade ties.
The confrontation reportedly followed a proposal by Trump for a deal to end the war in Ukraine, suggesting the lifting of sanctions on Russia in exchange for a ceasefire. Putin rejected the idea, insisting that the war would only end if Ukraine capitulated and ceded more territory in Donbas.
Recent reports indicate that Trump was infuriated by media portrayals of the Alaska summit as a "Putin triumph".
On 16 October, Trump spoke with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin for the first time in nearly two months and announced that they plan to meet in Budapest, which would be Putin's first appearance in the capital of an EU member state since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine and would require him to fly over other EU countries.
After the conversation, Trump said that Putin does not like the idea of the US supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and suggested that now is not the perfect time for secondary sanctions that would reduce Russia's revenue from energy exports.
Budapest said it would receive the Russian leader with respect despite the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for him, adding that the date and specific venue of the Putin-Trump meeting have not yet been determined.