They have been carefully circulating on each other for seven days-Slava invitations to an interview, stirring a few stitches with the ego-urine, suggesting that the only way is to end the Ukrainian war to meet the two of them, probably without Ukrainians.

President Trump and Vladimir V. Putin, whose relationship was always the subject of mysteries and psychodrams in the first Trump concept, are again on it. But it’s not easy to restart. Mr. Trump was unusually sharp in his rhetoric last week, saying Mr. Putin was “destroyed Russia”, And threatening sanctions and tariffs to the ground if it does not reach the negotiating table – a rather empty threat with regard to the small amount of the store between the US -a Russia these days.

Calculating and underestimated as always, Mr. Putin responded by flattery, agreeing with Mr. Trump so that Russia would not attack Ukraine that he was president three years ago. He reiterated that he was ready to sit down and negotiate the fate of Europe, the superpower for superpower, leader leader.

They have not talked so far, although Mr. Trump told the Air Force to “want to speak about the Air Force on Saturday night, and we will talk soon.” As they prepare the land for that first conversation, they send signals that they want to negotiate more than only Ukraine – a war that, in the narrative of Mr. Putin, is just one of the Arena in which the West leads its own fight against Russia.

Both men seem to imagine about the whole relationship between Moscow and Washington, perhaps including revived talks about nuclear weapons, a conversation that has a deadline: the main contract that limits arsenals of both countries expires almost exactly one year. After that, they would be free to follow the type of race for weapons that the world did not see from the deepest days of the Cold War.

Reminding talks with Mr. Putin in 2020, before the defeat in the US election of that year, Mr. Trump insisted last week: “We want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think it is very possible.” It seemed to assume that China would be involved in the same conversation. (He refused, at least so far.)

While still using the word “Denuclearize”, Mr. Trump almost certainly meant negotiating a new agreement to reduce – not eliminate – supplies of strategic nuclear weapons, which could cross continents. For his part, Mr. Putin spoke about reviving the discussion of “strategic stability”, “artistic artistic expression among talks for conversations that not only cover the number of nuclear weapons deployed on each side, but where they are based, as they are examined, and steps to distract their use.

The last, test talks on weapons control were completed just before the full Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, Mr. Putin has argued that all talks about restricting nuclear weapons should also cover the war in Ukraine. The Biden administration refused to mix the two, fearing that the actual goal of Mr. Putin was trading with limitations on his nuclear arsenal for the territory he captured in Ukraine and other concessions.

But Mr. Trump seems open to the broader negotiations, which Mr. Putin would like, because it might allow him to make that compromise.

It is unclear that, if any, in the long run, he guarantees that Mr Trump is ready to offer President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he has insisted on in recent days, he should have made an agreement with Mr. Putin and avoided an devastating war.

Mr. Trump obviously wants to establish himself as a peacemaker: in his first term, he suggested that he deserve the Nobel Peace Prize and bring some end in the largest European war since World War II, strengthening his argument. He seems to be not concerned about giving Ukraine a significant role in the process, unlike former President Joe Biden, whose mantra “is nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

“For all of these glittering exchanges, what Putin most wants to hear is that it is Russia’s agreement and now by itself,” said Stephen Sestanovich, Russian and Eurasian expert in the Foreign Relations Council and former State Department official.

Keith Kellogg, a retired general who, in 80 years, in charge of continuing the conversations, insists that the key will be an economy, not the victims. “When you look at Putin, you can’t just say, ‘Well, stop the murder,’ because honestly, it’s not their mentality,” he told Fox News last week. Mr Trump “approaches wars differently: views economics as part of that war.” And he will focus, insists Mr. Kellogg to limit Russian oil revenues.

Mr. Putin, convinced of his position in the Ukrainian battlefields, despite huge Russian victims, tries to telegraph access to waiting and watching Mr. Trump. Russian goals have not changed, he said, and although he is ready to end the war, he will only do so according to his own conditions.

Mr. Putin strongly hinted that, at the very least, he would demand that approximately 20 percent of Ukraine retain which Russia now controls, as well as an agreement excluding NATO membership for Ukraine and limits the size of his army.

At the same time, Mr. Putin clearly gave his desire to deal with Mr. Trump – and, spread, with the United States, after three years of diplomatic isolation by the Administration of Biden.

A spokesman for Kremlin, Dmitry S. Peskov, told reporters to almost daily that Mr. Putin was ready to receive the invitation of Mr. Trump. “We are waiting for signals,” he said on Friday. “Everyone is ready.”

And Mr. Putin himself went out of his way twice last week to boast of Mr. Trump – a proven method for winning Mr. Trump’s affection.

On Monday, Mr. Trump’s inauguration Day held a television meeting of the Russian Security Council – an event that usually happens on Fridays and mostly behind closed doors. He said that Mr. Trump “showed the courage” in the survival of his life attempt and won “a convincing victory.”

On Friday, at the time of the stage management, Mr. Putin stopped answering the question of a state television journalist about Mr. Trump. Kremlin immediately published Video on your website.

“We are probably better off meeting and, based on today’s reality, we talk calmly about all areas that are interesting for now and Russia,” said Mr. Putin. He pushed away the threats of Mr. Trump, calling him “smart” and “pragmatic”, and spoke the language of Mr. Trump, saying that the elections were “stolen” from him in 2020.

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin hinted at the desire to talk about much wider expensive problems with Mr. Trump than just a war in Ukraine. In his comments on State Television on Friday, Mr. Putin said that Kremlin and Trump’s administration could “look for solutions to the key today’s questions, including strategic stability and economics.”

The “strategic stability” reference signaled a potential interest in talking about weapons control, which Kremlin briefly began with Biden’s 2021 administration. “We talked about a weapon control range and discomfort problems, from AI in weapons to the renovation of the new start” Wendy Sherman, a former deputy state secretary, who has been talking to the US side, said UE -Poruci. (A new beginning is a weapon control contract that Russia has been suspended in part by and points out in February 2026)

Mrs. Sherman noted that the conversations were broken in front of “Putin’s terrible invasion.”

The call of Mr. Putin for broad conversations underwent that his continuous optimism about Mr. Trump, despite the difficult words of Mr. Trump about Russia last week and the fact that the President imposed a raft of new sanctions on Russia during his first term as president.

Mr. Trump also started last week after Volodimyra Zelenski, the Ukrainian president, basically accused of not agreeing with Mr. Putin who could have avoided the war.

“I could have done so easily, and Zelensky decided to” want to fight, “Mr Trump told Fox Television presenter Sean Hannity.

He made it clear that he was not interested in Mr. Biden’s access to Ukraine as much as needed, but with his heavy rhetoric last week against Mr. Putin, he may tries to show that he is not pushing for the Russian leader, while preparing for the possibility of not not to can be influenced by Mr. Putin into a business that works on all sides.

“In order for Putin to be balanced, Trump has to show him that the deal is only possible if it has a sense of Ukraine and our allies,” said Mr. Sestanovich.

Even as Mr. Putin welcomes to talk to Mr. Trump, Russian officials do not give up their entire message about the United States as a malignant force – one sign that the Kremlin protects its bets in the event of a discussion with Mr. Trump until it goes well.

Mrs. Sherman, who has a great deal of negotiation experience with Russia, warns that if he talks to Russia, Trump administration should be ready. “Putin will want what he has always said to want: as many territories as possible, no Ukraine ever in NATO, there are no western nuclear weapons in Europe that could target Russia.” Considering that, she bets that she is actually negotiating about following a new start agreement “is probably low on his list.”