Hours to the Alaska summit

Russians are arriving in Alaska one after another. As usual, journalists responsible for covering the summit are taking their positions. RIA Novosti reported that Russian journalists who came to Anchorage, Alaska, to report on the summit between Trump and Putin have been stationed in the Alaska Airlines center’s multifunctional arena.

On their way to Alaska, several interesting events involving journalists occurred. Notably, the Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel about Russian journalists being served with Kievan cutlets on the plane’s special board. Meanwhile, Lavrov was seen with a provocative expression among the officials who arrived first in Anchorage. Accompanied by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Lavrov’s public appearance wearing clothes with the “USSR” inscription has resulted in several debates.

The only presidential meeting is expected. The meeting’s venue and timing are clear. The summit is taking place in the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson at 11:30 local time and at 21:30 Moscow time, at 23:30 Tashkent time.

According to the meeting schedule, Presidents Trump and Putin will speak one-on-one, followed by a meeting involving their delegations. At the end of the meeting, the leaders will hold a press conference. The members of the delegations have already been determined. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and the CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, will be attending the summit from Russia’s side.

From America’s side, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and the special envoy Steve Witkoff are alongside Trump to halt Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on August 15.

Interestingly, Putin’s special envoy for negotiations with Ukraine, Medinsky, who has visited Turkey for negotiations several times, is not among the delegation members. It has been clear that he is not an option to be sent by Russia for serious negotiations, proving that the Kremlin has viewed negotiations with Ukraine “behind bars”. Thus, this summit is expected to be serious considering the attendance by high-level Russian officials. Besides that, Trump is also waiting for a good outcome from this summit. It is not without reason that he assessed the probability of the summit with Putin at 75 percent.

Both sides have emphasized Ukraine as the main topic of the meeting. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, as well as Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, have made clear that Ukraine will be on the agenda.

However, the delegations include officials who are somewhat far from military and political matters. For example, Vladimir Putin did not bring along Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and the CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and representative for negotiations, Kirill Dmitriev, without a reason. On the U.S. side, it is understandable that Scott Bessent has his responsibilities. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Russian and U.S. officials met several times in Istanbul and Riyadh, gradually paving the way to restore contacts and cooperation in many areas. The serious meeting in Alaska, alongside the Ukraine issue, will logically continue these efforts, as indicated by the composition of the delegations.