In August 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska — a setting unprecedented for U.S.-Russia relations and fraught with implications for Ukraine, Europe, and the Western alliance. With minimal U.S. economic leverage over Moscow, European allies excluded from the table, and Trump openly suggesting territorial concessions by a sovereign nation, this meeting is as much about the image it projects as any agreement it might produce.

In this episode, Werner Mouton examines the facts behind the summit, the structural weakness of the American negotiating position, and the symbolic gains already secured by Moscow before talks even begin. What might Putin want? Could Trump be outmaneuvered? And what will this moment mean for the cohesion of the alliance that has supported Ukraine for three years?

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