Speculation about how the upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has run unbridled in the past week, with some concern that could be more matches of the Kremlin, which could be made in Alaska, while others have started making comparisons with the Breakthrough-Leurd-Leider Gorbachev.
Immediately after the announcement of Trump of the meeting last week, South Carolina Gop Senator Lindsey Graham, who was fiercely against the Russian war in Ukraine, went to social media to claim: “For those who criticize President Trump because they are prepared to meet with Putin to meet the massacre with Gekraïen Ukreans end the Cold War.
“I am convinced that President Trump will walk away – like Reagan – if Putin is on a bad deal,” he added.
During the closing ceremony for the top of Geneva, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan face each other, on November 21, 1985. (Bettmann via Getty Images)
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Although some comparisons can be drawn between the coming top and the historic meeting of 1985 in Geneva – which then led to the couple that was together twice before the Cold War was finally finished – there are “striking” differences, experts warned.
“Trump offers Putin a narrow window to significantly improve the life of the Russian people and to make them well,” he added. “Trump hopes to achieve a compromise that will give Putin a facial -saving way to end the conflict.”
A portrait of President Ronald Reagan is seen in the background, while President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, April 22, 2025. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty images)
But both world leaders and security experts remain on their guard that there is interest in Putin to end his war ambitions in Ukraine.
“I have not seen any indication that Vladimir Putin wants to end the war. So let’s see if there is proof of that,” he added.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are shaking hand in the presidential palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, file)
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Hoffman pointed out that the US tried to stimulate Russia to end his war by sending different means, including direct military pressure by sending weapons packages to Ukraine, and economic sanctions that not only have influence on Putin’s war box, but will cause financial tension throughout the country.
In the end, Putin does not seem to have changed his war calculus yet, and experts have emphasized that there are some important differences between Putin and his Soviet predecessor, Gorbachev, who make this coming conversation enormously different.
Gorbachev came to power after years of attempts by Reagan to meet his Soviet opposite. The then new Soviet leader was not only interested in ending the decades of Cold War with the US, but he was also looking for important changes at home.
Peter Rough, senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute, explained that Gorbachev – who ultimately supervised the dissolution of the Soviet Union – also worked to increase transparency in the government and to open the economy while in conversation with Reagan.
“Putin does not send any of the signals that Gorbachev sent in the 1980s,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev will speak with each other in December 2004 at a press conference in Gottorf Castle in Germany. (Carsten Rehder/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
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There are clear differences in how Putin – who has openly punished Gorbachev and has referred to the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “largest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” in a speech of 2005 – works compared to his Soviet predecessor.
Although some have argued that there are similarities in how Trump works as a statesman, compared to Reagan.
The White House and the other Gop figures have argued that Trump used Reagan’s “Peace through Power” approach in his geopolitical maneuvering since he had been put on in January.
“I believe that there will be compelling comparisons between Trump’s ‘Peace by Power’ approach to Putin and Reagan’s approach to Gorbachev,” said Fleitz, who serves as vice -chairman of the Center for American Security of the America First Policy Institute. “Reagan’s strong leadership on world stage promoted global stability and contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Putin comes to the Alaska top because he sees a strong American president and someone who is willing to impose paralyzing energy sanctions on Russia,” he added.
Rough reflected this reasoning, but warned a lot will be determined in how Trump Putin will deal in the coming top.
“Trump has leverage in contrast to any other Western leader,” Rough argued. “I love the formula ‘Peace through strength’, but the devil will be in the details.”
President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, July 16, 2018. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
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“If the president supports his diplomatic effort in Alaska with a concrete threat of economic pressure on Russia and perhaps even talks about weapon sales on Ukraine, I think the chance that he pushes Putin into a cease -the fires will improve,” Rough added.
Trump has already said that he does not intend to close deals, and described the conversations as a “bankrupt-out meeting” or a “listening exercise”, such as Pers Secretary of the White House Karoline Leavitt detailed to reporters on Tuesday.
The president said he will immediately communicate with Ukrainian President Volodyymyr Zenskyy and other European leaders after his discussion with Putin.
