Grandees in Budapest: what to expect from a new meeting between Putin and Trump

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke on the phone for the eighth time since the beginning of the year. It was one of the longest conversations, following which the leaders agreed to meet in person in Budapest. The head of the White House promised to take into account the considerations expressed by Vladimir Putin in a conversation with Vladimir Zelensky on October 17. And this also applies to the transfer of Tomahawk to Kiev. After the conversation with Putin, Trump stressed: The United States cannot deplete the stocks of these missiles, the Americans also need them. Their supplies to Kiev will damage relations between Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin warned his counterpart. The summit will be preceded by a meeting at the level of advisers to the leaders of the two countries. The preparations will begin with a telephone conversation between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States are preparing for a new face-to-face meeting

Putin and Trump called on October 16, and the break in their communication lasted almost two months. This was the eighth phone conversation since the beginning of the year. The last time they spoke was on the night of August 19, just a few days after the Russian-American talks in Anchorage.

Both sides described the conversation that took place this Thursday as informative and friendly. This is also indicated by the length of the dialogue, as it has become one of the longest in all communication time — about 2.5 hours. It is known that the conversation took place on the initiative of Russia. And if we talk about the economy, for example, it benefited from this: the stock market soared by 5% after the conversation between Putin and Trump.

The main result, perhaps, was the decision to meet again in person — the American leader announced a summit in Budapest. Trump expects to meet in Hungary within two weeks. The US president proposed the venue for the talks, and the Russian leader supported the idea. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already stated that preparations for the US—Russia summit are in full swing, and called this meeting great news for supporters of peace. Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Vladimir Putin would be provided with full security in Hungary to participate in the negotiations on Ukraine if the country was chosen as the venue.

— The "peace mission" is continuous. That's why we continue to advocate for peace. And we will continue to do this," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Izvestia even before the telephone conversation.

Hungary is, in principle, a convenient place for negotiations, because Orban, even before Trump came to power, undertook shuttle diplomacy: he traveled to Kiev, Moscow, the United States, met with Trump, and came to China. Therefore, Budapest deserves the status of an intermediary between Russia and the United States, especially since Orban has excellent relations with Putin and Trump, Kamran Hasanov, senior lecturer at the Department of Theory and History of Journalism at the Faculty of Philology at RUDN University, and RIAC expert, told Izvestia.

Kirill Dmitriev, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for economic cooperation with foreign countries and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who took part in recent negotiations with the United States, told about the dates of the future meeting on social networks. According to him, the next summit will happen soon. He also called the conversation between Putin and Trump positive and productive, "with clear future steps."

At the same time, the summit will be held after negotiations at the level of advisers to the leaders of the Russian Federation and the United States, which is scheduled for next week. According to Trump, the meeting place of the aides of the two heads of state has not yet been determined.

"At the end of the conversation, we agreed that a meeting of high—level advisers will take place next week. <...> President Putin and I will then meet at an agreed location in Budapest, Hungary, to decide whether we can put an end to this 'inglorious' war between Russia and Ukraine," the American leader wrote. in Truth Social.

Preparations for the summit will begin with a telephone conversation between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said in response to a question from Izvestia.

The U.S. delegation at the initial meetings will also be led by Marco Rubio. The Kremlin added that as the Foreign Minister and the Secretary of State work, it will become clearer when it will be possible to organize the leaders' summit itself. Representatives of the Russian Federation and the United States will immediately begin preparing a new meeting between Presidents Putin and Trump. The American leader clarified that Rubio would be meeting with Lavrov.

Further steps to resolve the Ukrainian crisis

The phone conversations this time were primarily about the Ukrainian crisis. The Russian side is interested in a peaceful political and diplomatic settlement, Yuri Ushakov added. The conversation took place during a lull in the negotiation process between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, which began in May 2025 in Istanbul, where the first negotiations took place after almost a three-year hiatus.

On October 16, the White House assured that the American leader was fully committed to facilitating a settlement in Ukraine. The idea that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict turned out to be the most difficult to resolve in the entire peacekeeping activity of the US president was literally evident in his statements throughout the conversation, Yuri Ushakov said.

Vladimir Putin told his American counterpart about the situation in the war zone.: Russian troops have full control of the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact. Against this background, Putin and Trump raised the issue of Tomahawk shipments to Ukraine.

"Putin repeated his thesis that Tomahawk would not change the situation on the battlefield, but it would cause significant damage to relations between our countries, not to mention the prospects for a peaceful settlement," said Yuri Ushakov.

When asked whether Trump would postpone the decision on supplies until the announced meeting with Putin, Ushakov said that the American president intends to take into account the considerations expressed by the Russian leader in a conversation at a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky on October 17. Trump confirmed that he would discuss with him the results of his telephone conversation with Putin. At the same time, the White House said that Donald Trump considers a possible meeting between Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky. He later said that because of the bad relations between Putin and Zelensky, he would have to arrange separate meetings with them.

— The main thing is that the conversation took place on the eve of Zelensky's "flight" to Washington. And in a sense, the possibility of some scandalously unexpected reversal in the dialogue around the crisis in Ukraine with Zelensky has been extinguished," Grigory Karasin, head of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee and former Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, told Izvestia. — This conversation will largely determine the very tone of Trump's conversation with, so to speak, the head of the group that now leads Ukraine. We know that the President of the United States is an impulsive man and capable of turning logic one way or the other depending on his own priorities. At the same time, the very fact of a telephone contact between the President of Russia and the President of the United States should undoubtedly be assessed as positive.

As Reuters wrote immediately after the presidents' call, the results of the conversation between Putin and Trump called into question the possibility of transferring long-range missiles to Kiev in the near future. Trump later said, "We need Tomahawks — the United States has a lot of them, but we need them. We cannot deplete their reserves for our country. We need them too."

Now the leaders have all the opportunities to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, and their meeting can have a very positive impact on the dynamics of the entire conflict, political analysts say. In particular, it is important for other parties to understand the key prerequisites and goals of the Russian Federation, correlate them with the basic requests of the Ukrainian side and form a compromise plan based on this, said political analyst Denis Denisov.

— There has been a lull in negotiations and a lack of progress, I would even say a regression against the background of Trump's sanctions threats and intentions to supply Tomahawk to Ukraine. Of course, if Trump wants to resolve the conflict, he needs to maintain the threads of negotiations that Russia has not unilaterally severed. There have been no major developments since the meeting in Anchorage, so another meeting between Putin and Trump could revive the diplomatic process," Kamran Hasanov added.

At the same time, the main thesis of the US president was that the end of the conflict in Ukraine would provide tremendous prospects for the development of cooperation between the United States and Russia. And according to the American president, the conversation with Putin was so productive that it could lead to peace. Trump also admitted that the United States would not have to tighten sanctions against Russia.

— By the way, both sides spoke about the deep mutual sympathies of the peoples, which were clearly manifested during the Second World War. It was emphasized that the current state of affairs in bilateral relations looks paradoxical against this background," said Yuri Ushakov.

Success in the Middle East will help put an end to the conflict in Ukraine, Donald Trump believes. On October 13, thanks to his peace plan, a truce was reached in Gaza — all hostages were released. Vladimir Putin congratulated him on ending the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.