Putin, Trump discuss Ukraine “without details”

Russian President Putin and U.S. President Trump
discussed the conflict in Ukraine “but without details” at the economic summit
this weekend in Vietnam, Russian Presidential Administration head Dmitry Peskov
told reporters, as reported by the tass.ru news agency. The two leaders had
several informal discussions on Nov. 11, news reports said, marking the first
time they met after Trump’s election as president. “Ukraine was mentioned, it
was ascertained that the situation is complicated but there was no (detailed)
discussion,” he said, as reported by tass.ru. They didn’t hold a formal meeting
because “relations between Russia and the U.S. haven’t emerged from crisis,”
Putin had said earlier.

Zenon Zawada: Russia
isn’t going to change its policy on Ukraine until after the March 2018 presidential
elections, at the earliest. But we believe the military aggression will
continue through 2019. As for the U.S., it’s apparent now that Trump won’t have
the political capital to change its Russia policy for the remainder of his term
(until 2020). Therefore, the U.S. sanctions will remain in place for that
duration.

Until then, attempts will be made to introduce UN
peacekeepers in Donbas, which we don’t expect to succeed. What we do expect is
that far right, anti-immigrant parties will continue to make gains in European
elections, which will gradually work towards Putin’s advantage in attempting to
get sanctions relaxed in EU legislative bodies.