When asked whether Russia wants to end the war with Ukraine, US President Trump promised to answer in 2 weeks. At the same time, he noted that he is disappointed with the developments taking place. Meanwhile, as Politico reports, Trump has changed his attitude toward Putin over the past few days. First, on May 24, he said “Putin has gone absolutely crazy” and 2 days later, on May 26, declared that “Putin is playing with fire.” The US president seems to have finally begun to realize Russia’s true intentions and the difficulties of stopping the war. This was probably facilitated by the absurdities voiced by various Russian officials recently regarding “the illegitimacy of the USSR’s dissolution” or “the West’s promising that Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia would never join NATO” and a number of other issues.
Many American analysts have recently noted changes in the administration’s approaches. Although Secretary of State Rubio continues to discuss the next phase of negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, and special envoy Whitkoff is trying to persistently advance the settlement agenda, US President’s “success stories” are increasingly delayed.
In this situation, even solving problems previously considered secondary can gain great importance for influencing Trump’s plunging ratings. At first glance, the easiest solution opportunities among such problems exist in Armenian-Azerbaijani processes. First, the peace agreement has been agreed upon, and what remains is to coordinate the time and place of signing; besides, Armenia and Azerbaijan have completed the entire process of regulating border demarcation and delimitation work, and what remains is to physically implement the recorded points.
Recent events testify to the US administration’s activation in the direction of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. First, Secretary of State Rubio emphasized the agreement reached with Armenia in his message on the occasion of Azerbaijan’s Independence Day, after which, in Trump’s speech, this discussion was expanded and transformed into a call for rapid progress. It should be noted that Trump connects the establishment of peace with opportunities for expanding cooperation with the US. It can be predicted with high probability that in a short time the US administration will attempt to have greater participation in Armenian-Azerbaijani processes or, in other words, encourage and push them forward. More specifically, in case of reaching the signing of a peace agreement, Trump will have the opportunity to present his first real “success story” to the public.
Robert Ghevondyan
