Vyacheslav Volodin. Photo courtesy of TASS
MINSK, 17 August (BelTA) – The presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, fulfilled an 82-year-old concept of a bilateral summit in Alaska, TASS reports citing Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
The speaker of the State Duma noted that U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had originally proposed holding such a meeting with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in this very state. “Roosevelt’s original vision of an Alaska summit with Soviet leadership finally materialized 82 years later when Putin and Trump met, which is a striking historical symmetry,” Vyacheslav Volodin wrote in his Max (social media) account.
Vyacheslav Volodin recalled that in 1943, the U.S. president had proposed discussing the situation on the land and the sea in Alaska with Stalin, emphasizing the importance of holding the meeting without Britain, as he believed the USSR played a more crucial role in this matter. That meeting in the gold-rich state never materialized. “But the fact remains – there were periods in our history when mutual respect, despite ideological differences, was significantly greater than in subsequent years,” Vyacheslav Volodin noted.
Putin and Trump spoke for about three hours during the Alaska meeting. The Russian leader later revealed that the main topic of the summit was resolving the Ukraine conflict. He also added that he urged Trump to resume cooperation and invited him to Moscow. In turn, the U.S. president said that they were unable to reach agreement on some aspects.
Follow us on:
