Center President Paul Saunders Discusses the Trump-Putin Alaska Summit on C-SPAN

President Donald Trump announced Friday he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week in Alaska, part of his ongoing push to broker a ceasefire in the grinding, three-year Ukraine war.

On Saturday, August 9, Center president Paul Saunders told C-SPAN’s Washington Journal that expectations should be tempered.

“My expectations are limited,” Saunders said, noting that neither Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nor European leaders (key players in financing, arming, and sanctioning Russia) will be present. “Not everyone is there, which imposes certain constraints.”

Trump’s latest announcement comes after he imposed a deadline for Moscow to agree to a deal or face new sanctions. Existing U.S. and European measures have already battered Russia’s economy, Saunders said, though their success hinges on coordination. He questioned recent U.S. tariffs on India meant to curb its purchases of Russian oil, calling it a poor “chain of logic” unlikely to meaningfully dent the Kremlin’s war chest.

Saunders sketched the outlines of a possible settlement (still firmly rejected by Kyiv) that could involve territorial concessions in eastern Ukraine. He stressed that any final deal would require both sides to feel pressured yet confident enough to negotiate. “The Russians are probably a little bit too confident. Conversely, the Ukrainians are perhaps not quite confident enough,” he said, making him “not an optimist” about near-term peace.

The Alaska meeting, he argued, could still be useful as one stage in a longer, multi-step diplomatic process. Different “constellations of participants” might meet at different points, and not every party needs to attend every session. The key, he said, is whether Trump and Putin can reach an understanding acceptable to Ukraine and to the Europeans.

Saunders also cautioned against historical overreach in drawing parallels to pre-World War II appeasement. Russia’s military, he said, has been “very severely damaged” and is unlikely to seek further conquests soon, barring a scenario where it feels dangerously cornered.

Still, he acknowledged that both Trump and Putin have a penchant for surprises. “Who knows?” he mused. “But I’m not optimistic.” Ukraine’s fate may hinge on whether a handshake in Alaska can start a diplomatic thaw.

Watch the segment above or on the C-SPAN website here.