Trump, Putin only care about joint business – German expert
Stefanie Babst, former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General, said this in comments to Ukrinform.
"Yesterday's meeting in Alaska was not about Ukraine. Trump has already given Putin a green card to continue with his military campaign in February this year when he started to rehabilitate the Kremlin chief. His claims to end the war are fake only. He could not care less about Ukrainians," Babst said.
In her opinion, Trump and Putin, through their delegates, have checked out their potential converging business interests: exploiting natural resources in the Arctic region is certainly one. Discussing how they could go about digging out and exporting Ukraine's valuable natural resources in the Donbas is a second, she said. For this to happen, Trump needs secure land transportation lines, and this explains his friendly overture to Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko during a recent phone call, Babst added.
"We should definitely stop looking at Trump to help pushing Russia back. He will never. Europe's five-point plan is entirely irrelevant for him. As are Western appeals to Putin to stop the war," she said.
She said the West should abandon its utter naivety and treat Putin and Trump as they truly are: "two criminal clan chiefs who try to converge their strategic interests in Europe." According to her, the West, in particular its political leaders and the broader public, should stop looking at Putin and Trump as two "normal" state leaders.
"They don't care about rules, legal norms and people. They are both corrupt cartel chiefs for whom personal loyalty and the advancement of their personal business interests come first. They consider themselves as equal but competitive alpha males who have started to stake out their respective claims on the global stage," Babst said.
