Putin Says He’s Confident Trump Can Navigate Ukraine Crisis, Repair US–Russia Ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to the media after attending a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Nov. 28, 2024. Mikhail Tereshchenko/AFP/Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed confidence in U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to handle the challenges stemming from Russia’s escalating war with Ukraine.

Speaking at a Nov. 28 press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Russian leader suggested Trump could navigate the complexities arising from the Biden administration’s recent decision to allow Ukrainian forces to use U.S.-supplied weapons for strikes inside Russia. Putin said he thinks Trump—whom he called “clever and experienced”—is capable of creating the conditions to fix broken U.S.–Russia ties, while hinting that this could usher in a peace deal with Ukraine.

Putin said President Joe Biden’s reported authorization of Ukraine’s use of ATACMS missiles to target Russian territory is a significant escalation in the conflict. He said this decision could complicate the incoming Trump administration’s efforts to engage Russia in peace talks.

“It’s possible that the current administration wants to create difficulties for the future administration,” Putin said. “But as in my view of the newly elected president—he’s a quite clever and experienced man—I think he will find a solution given that he has tackled such a challenge as reclaiming the White House.”

Putin also proposed an alternative perspective, suggesting Biden’s escalation might be calculated to empower Trump in future negotiations with Moscow. By intensifying the conflict before Trump takes office, Biden could be handing Trump more leverage to negotiate concessions and pursue a resolution from a stronger diplomatic position.

“There are different options,” Putin said, according to a translation of his remarks by The Epoch Times. “By escalating the situation, by increasing the degree of confrontation, he is creating conditions for the future administration. It is easy to get out of this situation because the newly elected president will say: ‘It’s not me, it’s people who have completely lost their minds. I have nothing to do with this. Let’s talk,’ Of course, this is an option.”

Trump recently announced that he had picked Keith Kellogg, a retired three-star general, to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. As a co-chairman of the American First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, Kellogg wrote a research report in April that offers a roadmap of sorts for ending the Ukraine war. In it, Kellogg wrote that a combined failure to engage Russia diplomatically and the Biden administration’s “risk-averse pattern” in arming Ukraine has prolonged the conflict.

“Bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties,” Kellogg wrote.

His advice includes pursuing a formal cease-fire, delaying Ukraine’s NATO membership in exchange for a verifiable peace agreement, and tying future U.S. military aid to Ukraine’s willingness to participate in negotiations with Russia. Kellogg also advocated limited sanctions relief to Russia for compliance and establishing long-term security guarantees for Ukraine through bilateral defense agreements.

Meanwhile, Putin said at Thursday’s security summit in Kazakhstan that Russia is “ready for dialogue with the United States, including with the future administration,” while emphasizing that the conditions for peace talks remain unchanged from demands he announced earlier this year.

In a June meeting with Russian Foreign Ministry leaders, Putin outlined conditions for talks with Ukraine, including Ukrainian troop withdrawals from contested regions, Ukraine’s adoption of a neutral status, “denazification and demilitarization” of the country, and the lifting of Western sanctions.

In recent months, the war has been going in Russia’s favor as its bigger army uses its advantages in manpower and equipment to push Ukrainian forces backward. Putin recently announced that a new intermediate-range ultra-high speed ballistic missile system called “Oreshnik” has been officially commissioned into the Russian Armed Forces after being successfully battle-tested in Ukraine. He said the Oreshnik missiles, which hit targets in Dnipro, Ukraine, cannot be intercepted by any modern air defense system.

At Thursday’s security summit, Putin threatened to use the hypersonic missile system against decision-making centers in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.