'Trump believes he's set trap': analyst on high-stakes Budapest summit
global.espreso.tv
Sat, 18 Oct 2025 17:25:00 +0300

Ihor Chalenko, the head of the Center for Analysis and Strategies, stated this on Espreso TV."It was not for nothing that Putin called on Thursday, October 16; the Kremlin initiated a phone call with Trump. Because the Russian Federation calculated that a thousand Tomahawks are not needed, 50-60 units are enough to cause a blackout in the European part of the Russian Federation by attacking seven critical points of the Russian energy system, or to stop the export of oil from Russia by blocking the ports in the Baltic and Black Seas. This was a calculation. And 50-60 Tomahawks is quite realistic, based on various launch scenarios," commented Ihor Chalenko.In his opinion, Trump managed to provoke Putin using the Tomahawks topic. And the organization of a meeting in Budapest, which is scheduled to take place in two weeks, has already begun."The logic now is a kind of two-step path. The first step we got was Putin's agreement regarding Budapest, as Trump specifically proposed the Hungarian capital. And how can Putin refuse if Orbán is there and he certainly won't be arrested there? And the second step is when Trump came out and said: 'And now we are stopping the war at the positions where we are currently located.' And this is what the Russians don't like, and what Ushakov (Putin's foreign policy aide - ed.) denied when commenting on the results of the conversation between Putin and Trump," the expert noted. According to him, there is a certain trap that Trump believes he has set, and everything will be great in two weeks. However, Putin is calculating this and has now made contact to prevent the Tomahawks from being provided, to stop Ukraine from receiving additional weapons, and to create a pause and confusion."In the current situation, I would advise waiting a little longer than two weeks—until the beginning of November. Trump still has to meet with Xi in South Korea. Nevertheless, as of today, we have no public signals about restrictions on providing intelligence for deep strikes, and there are also a number of talks regarding the American defense industry and energy sector. That is, in parallel with the Tomahawks, many other important negotiations were held, but we still have to wait for the result," Chalenko summarized.On October 16, U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and announced that he had arranged a meeting with him in Budapest.
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