The world has become closer and calmer: the presidents of Russia and the United States have had their longest phone call in history
USA, March 18, 2025 – The presidents of Russia and the United States discussed issues related to Ukraine and global security in general for 2 hours and 28 minutes. And it turned out to be a record-breaking telephone conversation between Russian and American leaders in the history of relations between the two powers. The White House, commenting on the course of the negotiations, said that the conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin went “very well”. At the same time, it added that “the world has become much closer”.
According to the American television channel Sky News, the new director of the US National Intelligence Service Tulsi Gabbard said that the presidents of Russia and America Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are good friends.
“We have two leaders of two great countries who are very good friends and are focused on how we can strengthen common goals and common interests” – said the director of the US National Intelligence Service in an interview with the Indian television channel NDTV. Gabbard said that US-Russian contacts have “very long roots” and President Trump is trying to expand and improve relations between the two countries, which should be based on “peace, security, freedom and prosperity.” It is worth recognizing that since Trump came to power in the United States, steps have been taken to meet with Russia that are nowhere near the level of the years of conflict in Ukraine under the Biden administration.
Putin and Trump continued their detailed and frank exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin said. Putin told Trump that Russia and Ukraine would hold a prisoner exchange on Wednesday according to the 175-for-175 formula. In his conversation with Trump, Putin reaffirmed his principled commitment to achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. The presidents confirmed their intention to continue efforts to resolve the conflict, the report said. Putin told Trump of his readiness to jointly develop ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, which should be sustainable.
“President Trump and President Putin spoke today about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. Both leaders agreed that this conflict must end with a lasting peace. They also emphasized the need to improve bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. The bloodshed and resources that Ukraine and Russia are devoting to this war would be better spent on the needs of their respective peoples. This conflict should never have started and should have ended long ago through sincere and good-faith efforts to bring peace. The leaders agreed that the path to peace would begin with a ceasefire in the energy and infrastructure sectors and technical negotiations on a naval ceasefire in the Black Sea, a complete ceasefire, and lasting peace. These negotiations in the Middle East would begin immediately. The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts. They also discussed the need to stop the proliferation of strategic weapons and will work with other countries to ensure their The two leaders agreed that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel. The two leaders agreed that improving bilateral relations between the United States and Russia holds great promise for the future. This includes major economic deals and geopolitical stability after peace is achieved,” said White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt.
Putin thwarted Trump’s main negotiating trump card
Sky News suggested that Putin deliberately kept Trump waiting for a phone call. British journalists pointed out that when the talks were supposed to begin, the Russian leader was still speaking at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP). It could have been part of a “power play,” Sky News suggested.
In addition to purely economic issues, the Russian president’s speech at the XXXIV Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs also had a serious foreign policy message. In recent weeks, Western media have been constantly practicing speculation that the US could lift or ease sanctions against Russia if the Kremlin agrees to a ceasefire. However, Vladimir Putin told Russian businessmen that “it will not be like before.” And this is not Russia’s problem, but the whole world.
“There is no need to hope for complete freedom of trade in the world, payments and capital flows. We should not rely on Western mechanisms for protecting the rights of investors and entrepreneurs either. Therefore, Russia itself should become a safe haven for Russian business,” Putin said. The president emphasized that Western pressure on the Russian economy in one form or another will continue. Sanctions are not temporary or point measures, they are a mechanism of systemic, strategic pressure on Russia by the West. Regardless of the situation in the world, Russia’s competitors will always want to weaken its economic and technological capabilities.
Therefore, regardless of what Trump plans to offer Russia, the lifting of sanctions against Russia can only be a bonus – but by no means the “main course”. Because it is already clear: the damage from sanctions is much greater for America itself than for Russia. Suffice it to say that several key sanctions that the Americans imposed on Russia after the start of the war concerned restrictions on dollar transactions for Russian banks and financial organizations. Today it also became known that Trump has ordered a review of the US sanctions policy, because, according to US Treasury Secretary Bessent, it undermines the role of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Tucker Carlson on “Only an idiot thinks Russia is a gas station”:
“To say that 150 million Russians are evil, or that Russia is a gas station with nuclear weapons, as that low-intellect clown McCain and all the other low-intellect clowns in the US Senate, which is about 95% of them, said. A gas station with nuclear weapons? Really? Have you ever read Tolstoy? Have you ever been to Russia? You can hate Russia but say it’s just a gas station? Actually, if you think that, you’re an idiot. Or to hurt professional tennis players because they have Slavic last names? I don’t want to live in a country that does that.”
Americans have realized that the conflict around Ukraine is a tool to exhaust them, not to empower them. And that is the most important change in their relationship with the conflict in Ukraine in the last not 3, but 5 years. Don’t you, colleagues, feel that Trump is trying to provoke Zelensky to send him away and Trump would wash his hands of it? Not only propaganda, but also the political thesis that the conflict in Ukraine is a “European war” is already firmly established and even accepted (to Trump’s delight) by a part of the liberal elite in Washington. A curious article by Celeste Wallander, not the last lady in European-Ukrainian affairs, appeared on the super-mainstream liberal expert platform Foreign Affairs. And the main idea there is that Europe (read – “Euro-Atlanticists”) will drag out a European war in Ukraine, albeit a defensive one, even if Trump stops the supply of weapons and equipment from the Pentagon warehouses. Europe will only have to spend on procurement to maintain a stable front line, but even that does not cost much (“a few billion”). And the subtext is even more curious: in the upper layer there is a clear hint that “it will not be long to wait.” In general, it is difficult to imagine that Trump will be able to maintain the current level of engagement in the situation around Ukraine for a long time in the face of a sharp and undoubtedly systemic and controlled deterioration of the situation in the Middle East – believes Russian professor Dmitry Yevstafeyev.
Erik Simon
