Putin-Trump meeting could fuel Russians' 'collective narcissism' – expert

Dr. Jade McGlynn, a British expert in strategic communications and countering disinformation, and Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies, King's College London, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"Russians suffer from collective narcissism - the sense that their country is uniquely and inexplicably great, yet is undervalued and underrespected. A resonant propaganda narrative is that Putin has taken Russia 'off up its knees' and a Trump-Putin meeting after launching this criminal war supports these domestic propaganda claims," McGlynn said.

In her opinion, such a high-level meeting sends a similar message to global audiences too and, unfortunately, works to undermine Ukraine's righteous struggle against Russian aggression.

"Perhaps most infuriatingly it won't lead to any results because the problem isn't that Ukraine doesn't want peace, it is that Russia neither wants nor could cope with peace," she said.

McGlynn stressed that if the Trump administration truly wants a deal, it needs "to escalate to de-escalate" by placing shadow fleet sanctions, secondary tariffs on Russia and sending arms to Ukraine.

At the same time, she expressed doubt whether the current U.S. administration "enjoys the wisdom or memory that makes such conclusions obvious."

U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff held a meeting with Kremlin officials in Moscow on Wednesday, which Trump described as "very productive." The U.S. president later said he considered it highly likely that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin would agree to a joint meeting in the near future.

On Thursday, the Kremlin announced an agreement to hold a meeting between Putin and Trump in the coming days. Meeting a delegation from the United Arab Emirates, Putin said the initiative to arrange the meeting came from both sides, adding that it could take place in the UAE.

Fox News reported on August 8 that Trump and Putin could meet as early as next Monday, with Rome being one of the possible venues.

Photo: AA