Putin knows how to handle Trump — diplomat

He expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

"In order to interpret Peskov's words, you probably need a note from Putin himself to understand what he wanted to convey. Well, let's look at it from the perspective of the current realities. That is, it is clear that there are certain agreements, and I wouldn't say that Vitkoff just went to Russia for no reason. If we look beyond the ceasefire, at the conditions under which the United States is ready to lobby for an end to the war—as they see it—they mostly coincide with Putin's wishes, and we shouldn't forget that, because no one is offering us anything else, that's the first thing. Secondly, there are still some differences. Trump would like everything to happen quickly, but Putin probably doesn't; he is counting on continuing the offensive, the aggression. These are certain differences. And Putin is counting on resolving these differences, to return to the kind of ecstatic atmosphere that existed at the beginning, through a meeting with Trump," he said.

Oleh Shamshur noted that although there haven't been many meetings between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, judging by those that did take place, one can conclude that the Russian dictator knows how to talk to the current head of the White House.

"I'm not going to say 'manipulate'—maybe that's too strong—but still, he knows how to work with Trump. And he is counting on achieving the result he needs during a personal meeting. You remember, there was a meeting, I think in Helsinki, when Trump came out and publicly said that he trusts Putin more than his own intelligence services. That was a revolution. And it cannot be ruled out at all that we will hear the same thing if this meeting takes place. As for the possibility of such a meeting, Trump started talking about it right after his first phone conversations with Putin. So, I think he is morally ready to hold such a meeting. The only thing is, of course, he would want to come out of this meeting and announce a result, because he constantly needs to feed his fan base and show that everything he does, he does successfully," the diplomat added.

• On May 5, the spokesman for the Russian dictator, Dmitry Peskov, stated that as of mid-May, Vladimir Putin has no planned visits to the Middle East, which had been considered a possible location for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.