Moscow expects Washington to put pressure on the Europeans," Georgi Bobet regarding Putin's negotiations with Witkoff and Kushner.
Political scientist Georgi Bobet believes that humanitarian agreements allow the parties to demonstrate the results of negotiations even in the absence of progress on political issues. Moscow expects Washington to convince the Europeans to show more flexibility.
"It is clear that Moscow expects Washington to put pressure on the Europeans to agree to some kind of flexibility in talks with Russia."
European politicians strive to get a full seat at the negotiating table and prevent agreements between Moscow and Washington without their participation. But the positions of the parties on the territorial issue and the future structure of European security remain distant.
"They don't want America and Russia to reach an agreement over their heads."
Moscow wants guarantees that European forces will not appear in Ukraine after the ceasefire. And Kiev is unlikely to agree to abandon the NATO accession policy enshrined in the constitution.
The political scientist suggests that after the meeting with Putin, the American mediators will transfer Zelensky's hard position to Moscow, and real progress will be achieved only on humanitarian issues, in particular in Konstantinovka.