Four words, spoken in English by Russian President Vladimir Putin, seemed to surprise even Donald Trump at the end of their Alaska summit Friday: ‘Next time in Moscow.’
Trump, who admitted peace talks in Anchorage ‘didn’t get there’, appeared to have been caught off guard, but winged an answer that was both encouraging and non-committal.
‘That’s an interesting one, I’ll get a little heat on that one,’ Trump said with a laugh. ‘But I could see it possibly happening.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for further comment on Putin’s invitation.
No American president has visited Russia since Barack Obama attended the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg in 2013.
Many were shocked by the overture from Putin to Trump in the moment.
‘History is unfolding before our eyes,’ one pro-Trump commenter stated.
‘That must be the first time he’s spoken English on camera in years,’ noted journalist Saagar Enjeti.
Four words, spoken in English by Russian President Vladimir Putin , seemed to surprise even Donald Trump at the end of their Alaska summit Friday: ‘Next time in Moscow’
Trump didn’t appear to have a reaction prepared to his Russian counterpart but winged an answer that was both encouraging and non-committal
Liberals, unsurprisingly, were critical of the offer as they were of much of the entire meeting.
‘Putin opened and spoke first, spoke longer and got the last word inviting his pal Trump to Moscow. Stuffed Trump in a locker. Pathetic and Weak,’ wrote former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock.
Trump has been to Moscow in the past, including in 2013 to stage the Miss Universe Pageant.
He also went with his first wife Ivana on a trip to the then-Soviet Union in 1987, writing in The Art of the Deal that it was after a representative of the USSR suggested he could do business there, potentially building a hotel.
Obama was also the last president to go to the Russian capital in Moscow, where he first met with Putin in 2009.
However, relations between the United States and the Kremlin have gone downhill since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the ‘Russiagate’ hoax and allegations of interfering in US elections in 2016 and the War in Ukraine that began in 2021.
Joe Biden’s lone meeting with Putin took place in Geneva in June 2021, just months before the war began.
At the summit today, Putin claimed the conflict would not have happened had Trump been president at the time.
Bill Clinton, George H.W. and George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon all went to Russia at least once. grea
Putin speaks at a press conference following the summit in Anchorage, Alaska
No American president has visited Russia since Barack Obama attended the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg in 2013
Trump has been to Moscow in the past, including in 2013 to stage the Miss Universe Pageant . He also went with his first wife Ivana on a trip to the then-Soviet Union in 1987
Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended the famous Yalta Conference to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill just months before his death in 1945.
Joe Biden’s lone meeting with Putin took place in Geneva in June 2021, just months before the war began.
At the summit today, Putin claimed the conflict would not have happened had Trump been president at the time.
But the president left the world hanging announcing no details and answering no questions about his ‘extremely productive meeting‘ with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the future of Ukraine.
What was clear was that there was no immediate ceasefire or peace deal to end the Ukraine war out of Friday’s Anchorage, Alaska talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
‘We didn’t get there,’ the usually ebullient president acknowledged, ‘but we have a very good chance of getting there.’
In an extremely uncharacteristic move, Trump allowed Putin to speak first – at what had been billed as a bilateral press conference – and then didn’t answer a single question before shaking hands with Putin again and sauntering offstage.
Their whole appearance before the press lasted just 12 minutes following more than three hours of private conversation.
Liberals, unsurprisingly, were critical of the offer as they were of much of the entire meeting
‘I’m going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to, and there are just a very few that are left,’ Trump said.
He added, ‘Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant.’
In his opening statement, Putin flattered Trump by saying his assessment about the Ukraine war was true and that it never would have happened under Trump’s watch.
‘Today when President Trump’s saying that if he was the president back then there will be no war. I’m quite sure it would indeed be so, I can confirm that,’ Putin said in Russian through a translator.
Putin also placed blame on former President Joe Biden for the U.S.-Russia relationship unraveling, not his February 2022 invasion of America’s ally Ukraine.
‘I’d like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities,’ Putin said, adding it was a ‘big mistake.’
Putin noted that the U.S.-Russia relationship had soured ‘to the lowest point since the Cold War.’
‘I think that’s not benefiting our countries and the world as a whole,’ Putin said. ‘It’s apparent that sooner or later we had to amend the situation and move on from the confrontation to dialogue.’
Barack Obama was the last US president to meet with Putin in Russia. Pictured: The leaders in 2009 at Putin’s residence near Moscow
But Putin’s comments were mostly backward-looking, a glaring indication that the U.S. and Russia remained apart on the crucial issues that could lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
What was clear was that there was no immediate ceasefire or peace deal to end the Ukraine war out of Friday’s Anchorage, Alaska talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
‘We didn’t get there,’ the usually ebullient president acknowledged, ‘but we have a very good chance of getting there.’
In an extremely uncharacteristic move, Trump allowed Putin to speak first – at what had been billed as a bilateral press conference – and then didn’t answer a single question before shaking hands with Putin again and sauntering offstage.
Their whole appearance before the press lasted just 12 minutes following more than three hours of private conversation.
‘I’m going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened. But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to, and there are just a very few that are left,’ Trump said.
He added, ‘Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant.’
During a sit-down with Sean Hannity taped in the room the summit occurred, the Fox News host asked if the president would reveal to him what that one issue is.
‘No, I’d rather not,’ Trump replied. ‘I guess somebody is going to go public with it, they’ll figure it out, but no, I don’t want to do that. I want to see if we can get it done.’
