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Putin's Upper Hand00:05:31
unidentified
one of those great examples of the way we're getting out there comcast supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy It was last week that that announced meeting is scheduled to take place Friday in Alaska.
In light of that announcement, two pieces recently coming out taking various viewpoints on strategic advantage.
This was from Time, two Yale professors writing in the recent days.
Trump has the upper hang going into the meeting with Putin.
And here's some of the argument from Yale professors Jeffrey Sonnenfield and Stephen Tyan.
They write, unless Putin ends his war, he threatens to strangle his own nation with inflation.
As Trump pointed out, Russian inflation has gone through the roof with annual inflation near 10%.
Given this deteriorating economic backdrop for Putin, Trump holds all the cards while Putin holds none.
If Trump chooses to escalate economic sanctions and economic pressure on Russia through cutting off Putin's exports of oil and other natural resources, Putin could run out of money very soon, perhaps even by the end of the year.
Putin's bluff is ready to be called if Trump plays his hand correctly and doesn't back down prematurely.
Again, those are from those Yale professors, Time magazine.
It's in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Trudy Rubin, who writes regularly on foreign policy, in recent days putting this piece up, saying it's Mr. Putin who has the upper hand in the meeting upcoming with President Trump on Ukraine.
Here's some of the arguments she makes.
She says, never mind that Putin has made clear over and over that he believes Ukraine has no right to exist, recently repeating his mantra that, quote, all of Ukraine is ours.
Never mind that the Kremlin Tsar is terrorizing Ukrainian civilians with missiles and Shahid drones.
Never mind that this Russian war criminal has told Trump's hopelessly naive emissary, Steve Wickoff, that he won't accept less than full Ukrainian capitulation.
Once again, Mr. Trump appears ready, no eager, to play into Putin's hands.
Just holding the meeting will be a diplomatic victory for Mr. Putin, who wants to emerge from isolation from the West for his brutal invasion of a neighbor.
That was from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
You can find it online.
Those are the thoughts from those opinion pieces when it comes to this upcoming meeting scheduled for Friday.
This idea of who has the upper hand going into this meeting.
If it's Mr. Trump or Mr. Putin, you can tell us your thoughts.
202-748-8001 for Republicans, 202-748-8000 for Democrats and Independents, 202-748-8002.
You can also text us your thoughts at 202-748-8003 and post on our social media sites at Facebook and on X. New York is first up.
Democrats lying.
This is Rob on who has the upper hand going into this meeting.
Rob from New York.
unidentified
Hello.
Hey, thank you.
Good morning, and thank you for C-SPAN.
You do a great job at what you do.
So keep up the good work.
I think Mr. Putin has the upper hand because there's supposed to be some sort of blackmail that he can perform.
Putin against Trump all these years over this story, from when he had a missed Universe contest in Moscow and afterwards they went.
Trump went back to a fancy hotel and the rooms that was bugged by the KGB and things went on allegedly with women and that received money for their work, and that those tapes are can be used as blackmail.
So There's no way that our president is going to allow those types of things to come forward.
Imagine what the world would say if those tapes turn out to be true.
So you don't think one has the advantage over the other at this point?
unidentified
No, no, they both want peace.
You know, I think that, you know, the whole idea of Ukraine is they were promised when Russia, you know, collapsed the USSR that NATO would not go one inch eastward.
And they haven't lived up to that.
They haven't lived up to that deal.
I mean, you know, the guy is surrounded by NATO.
I mean, what would we do if China put missiles in Russia and Canada?
So you think, so as far as going into it, nobody has the upper hand in your opinion, one way or the other, as far as the end result when it comes to Ukraine.
Jimmy, there in North Carolina, that meeting scheduled for Friday between President Trump and President Putin.
When it comes to advantages or who has the upper hand is some of these pieces that we've showed you this morning leading up to that meeting, what do you think?
202748-8001 for Republicans, 202748-8000 for Democrats and Independents, 202748-8002.
And text us too at 202748-8003 if you want to give your thoughts there on this idea of an advantage going into the meeting.
Let's hear from Mary in Florida, Republican line.
unidentified
Hi.
Hi.
I give President Trump a lot of credit.
I believe he has the upper hand.
Putin is a thug.
He'll kill just for the thrill of it.
I feel very sorry for the Ukrainians.
They had nothing to do with what happened.
I pray for them every day.
Putin is killing his own people.
He doesn't care about life.
I believe President Trump is a very smart man.
He knows how to deal with Putin.
I do believe Zelensky should be at the first meeting, but maybe President Trump wants to figure Putin out before putting him into it, Mr. Zelensky, President Zelensky.
But I pray for everybody because it's a terrible war.
This is Edward, who joins us from Ohio Independent Line.
You're next up.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Yes, I think, well, first of all, in the previous caller, Trump is not a very smart guy.
I think he's a very ignorant man.
But aside from that, Putin, beyond a question of a doubt, has had the upper hand for years now with this guy.
It goes all the way back to the 2016 election.
And a previous caller had made mention of the possibility that Trump is being blackmailed by Putin.
I think I kind of buy into that.
So with that in mind, I have to say that Putin is going to have the upper hand in this upcoming talk, which, by the way, is going to take place, I think it's supposed to take place in Alaska.
Am I right about that?
I think so.
Which in itself is a little bit strange.
But nevertheless, it's going to be Putin with the upper hand.
It was Vice President JD Vance in an interview on Fox News talking about the person missing from these upcoming talks, President Zelensky.
The write-up in the New York Post talking about that interview that he did, there's the headline that Vance says only Mr. Trump and President Trump can decide when to bring Putin and Zelensky together for peace talks.
Here's some of the thoughts from the vice president yesterday.
One of the most important log jams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change.
We're at a point now where we're now trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict.
Now, what do I think is ultimately going to come out of this?
Look, it's actually very simple.
If you take where the current line of contact between Russia and Ukraine is, we're going to try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops.
It's not going to make anybody super happy.
Both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it.
But I don't think you can actually sit down and have this negotiation absent the leadership of Donald J. Trump.
And the president said this to me today privately, said, look, maybe this works out, maybe it doesn't, but it's worth the effort.
It's worth trying.
And we're going to keep on using the diplomatic influence of the president of the United States to accomplish an end to this conflict.
They say at the summit, Mr. Trump should proceed carefully and methodically.
The starting position of Friday's discussions will be Mr. Putin's demand that Ukraine withdraw unilaterally from what it still holds of Dunk in exchange for a ceasefire.
Mr. Trump can calmly counter with a proposal put forth by the European allies that Russia first agrees to a ceasefire as a precondition for any reciprocal trading of territories.
Under such circumstances, swapping of the remains of Dunsk for territories in Zapozo and Kherson regions have Russia currently occupies may be acceptable.
Security guarantees will also have to be part of the discussion.
That's from the editors.
Again, we've showed you the pieces from both Time Magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer talking about this idea of going into these meetings on Friday.
Who has the upper hand?
Getting your thoughts on that.
202748-8001 for Republicans, 202748-8000 for Democrats, and Independence 202748-8002.
Let's hear from Tony in Pennsylvania, Independent Line.
Hi.
unidentified
Morris Eastman.
I believe that Putin will probably have the upper hand because Donald Trump is incompetent.
So unless he was negotiating with someone like Erkel, then he will never have the upper hand.
And I agree with the one caller that called and said to you that this question is so irrelevant when there's so many important issues taking place in this country.
Well, you called and commented on it, and you talked a little bit about it.
Elaborate more on why you think President Putin has the upper hand then.
unidentified
I called to tell you what I just told you.
I already told you why, because Donald Trump is incompetent, and you seem to be the same if you're going to ask a question like this with so many issues taking place in this country.
One of the people also commenting yesterday on these upcoming talks and particularly where the various players are, is the NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta.
He talked about this meeting, talked about NATO's role, what they feel or what they're looking forward going into the meeting.
Here are the comments from Secretary General Ruta yesterday.
When it comes to full-skill negotiations, and let's hope that Friday will be an important step in that process.
We need Ukraine at the table.
It will be about territory.
It will be, of course, about security guarantees, but also about the absolute need to acknowledge that Ukraine decides on its own future, that Ukraine has to be a sovereign nation, deciding on its own geopolitical future, of course, having no limitations to its own military troop levels, and for NATO to have no limitations on our presence on the Eastern Flank in countries like Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.
He wants to end the terrible damage being done to the infrastructure in Ukraine.
So many people losing their lives, so much damage being done.
And clearly, these two big issues have to be on the table.
One is territory.
And we have to acknowledge at this moment that Russia is controlling some of Ukrainian territory.
And the question will be how to go forward, past a ceasefire, including what it means in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine.
And let me add one important aspect here.
When it comes to this whole issue of territory, when it comes to acknowledging, for example, maybe in a future deal that Russia is controlling de facto, factually, some of the territory of Ukraine, it has to be a factual recognition and not a political de jure recognition.
So I think a slight upper hand goes to Donald Trump.
Somebody just recently said it, or you read it, where, you know, we have the opportunity to bring massive sanctions on Russia.
On the other hand, I think, you know, Putin has kind of a moral upper hand, in this case, with the whole war to start with.
I mean, look up Victoria Newland.
Look up, you know, the folks in the Biden campaign who made this happen and all the other folks who wanted Ukraine to be part of NATO when Russia specifically said they don't want to, you know, they just don't want Russia, I mean, the Ukraine to go or NATO to go one step further east.
Really quickly, one last thing, Pedro.
I think you guys are kind of slipping because you had a guy who called talking about the PP tape, and he doesn't know that that has all been debunked.
Oh, by the way, all of it has been declassified by Telsi Gabbert.
And I think that may be something you all should kind of, you know, maybe look at when people say things like that to kind of correct them.
Willie in Texas, this is Bill texting us this morning saying that it's President Putin has the advantage because he can walk away or propose a settlement, but he never has to abide by his word.
Mr. Trump has nothing to bargain away.
He has no authority to meet in behalf of Ukraine.
Again, you can text us your thoughts at 202-748-8003 if you wish.
Let's go to Melvin.
Melvin is in Florida, Democrats' line.
unidentified
Hello.
Hello.
Good morning, Pedro.
You know, this is basically the same thing going back to what happened in Afghanistan.
Trump went out and negotiated with a Taliban and not having Afghanistan people involved in it.
And that's what happened.
People keep thinking that Biden messed it up and knows Trump.
And then he released 5,000 prisoners in all that time.
And that's what ended up bringing that Afghanistan thing down because they were never invited to the table.
And Trump negotiated with the Taliban in not having the Afghanistan their presence.
This is the same situation, and it's going to happen the same way again.
It's Trump doing what he thinks he wants to do.
And that is not what's supposed to be going on here.
It's the same thing he's been trying to do several times backdoors.
unidentified
And it comes from also with the issue that he had when he was running for president and wanted Zelensky to sit up and lie for him about some stuff going on with Biden's son.
What does your gut say about who you think is going to show that perseverance?
Who do you think has the advantage that way?
unidentified
Well, Trump has it now, but Putin's playing the long game.
And the people who are knowledgeable about Russia feel that Putin will never give up.
And given that they're so much larger than Ukraine, that they'll eventually overwhelm Ukraine and that Europe will eventually get fatigued out of all this.
The key thing here, really, is for Europe to be united because Europe has 550 million people.
And when you look at all the NATO nations together, I think it's 31.
And Russia is only 130 million people.
But they have all different viewpoints in Europe, and it's hard to get them as a cohesive unit.
But if they stand together, they arguably don't even need the United States.
And so far, Trump has been very helpful in getting Europe to improve their defense budget by 5%, which is long overdue.
So it's really a test of wills.
Will Europe really get itself together and recognize that they have an existential threat and really be able to be united against Russia?
Or will Putin just persist on and feel that he'll sacrifice everything in Russia to eventually win?
And that's what, again, the experts say.
Or will Trump use all the leverage he has?
Because he does have enormous economic leverage.
If he handled India better, instead of humiliating India and embarrassing them by saying they have to do it, if he worked it behind the scenes, he probably could have won India over because India and China are the two largest buyers of Russian oil.
And I think he could prevail with India if they just manage it well.
So I think, you know, they all have the upper hand, if you will.
Russia's Limited Compromises00:01:10
unidentified
The question is, how do they apply it?
And if they apply it effectively and with persistence, I think that side will prevail.
Harley there in Florida giving his assessment, both of them with the upper hand.
You may share those thoughts of Harley.
You may disagree with him.
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Independents 202748-8002.
More from the Post taking a look at this upcoming meeting saying Russian analysts say that Mr. Putin would not agree to withdraw forces from Kherson or Zaparzazia regions and that Russia illegally annexed in 2022, but still does not fully control.
Quote, Russian troops are not going to make any step backwards, said Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin analyst.
The only compromise Russia would make, he said, would be to halt its military campaign to seize Odessa and Kharkiv regions and the cities of Kherson and Zaparzizia, which remained under Ukrainian control.
Zelensky reiterated Saturday that he would not accept any deal that would involve giving territory to Russia, and she said was forbidden by Ukraine's constitution.
James is from Washington, D.C. Republican line, this idea of who has the upper hand on this upcoming meeting on Ukraine.