Putin Is Sending Signals To Trump Through Lavrov

• Vitaly Portnikov
• 11.02.2026, 12:18

What is the Kremlin chief hoping for?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Russians not to get carried away by U.S. President Donald Trump and expect him to put Ukraine and the Europeans on the spot and force Kiev to agree to Russian demands.

Lavrov emphasized that two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi have already taken place. And one would like the war to end, however, the Russians are far from there yet. This is not the first statement by a Russian official to emphasize the Kremlin's disappointment with the actions taken by the U.S. side after Anchorage.

And the leading Russian business newspaper Vedomosti, citing an anonymous participant in the Abu Dhabi talks, also emphasized that Russia believes that the United States is not fulfilling the promises and commitments it made during the meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia.

The source, and it could also be a representative of the Russian foreign ministry, said that the Kremlin was not satisfied with the actions taken by the United States during the meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia. Of course, without questioning the need for the Russian Federation to control the entire Donetsk region.

It was even possible to reach a compromise on the size of Ukraine's armed forces. However, Russia's condition, of course, was the clearing of Donetsk Oblast of Ukrainian troops, as well as economic cooperation with the United States.

Moscow says that this was a prerequisite for ending the Russian-Ukrainian war, which, of course, illustrates Putin's concern about his own country's economic situation quite eloquently. Because the question arises as to what economic relations between Moscow and Washington have to do with ending the war on the Russian-Ukrainian front.

Since then, however, Russia has not seen any evidence from the United States that Washington is willing to meet Moscow's demands. Ukraine has not agreed to the withdrawal of troops from Donetsk and Lugansk regions, and the United States has consistently pushed Russia out of energy markets and imposed economic sanctions against it.

So it can be assumed that Russia, despite Putin's obvious reluctance to quarrel with Donald Trump and in dialog with the current U.S. administration, sees no real progress. This is what Lavrov is talking about.

And to a certain extent, this reflects several trends at once. First, Putin is beginning to realize that with Trump's help, he will not be able to achieve either the capitulation of Ukraine or the fact that the Europeans will stop helping our country in its resistance to the Russian Federation.

The second is that the Ukrainian defense is leading over time to the fact that the Russian economy is really starting to be on the verge of survival. This is why the Russian president so badly needs a so-called comprehensive economic partnership with the United States.

Because this economic partnership should provide for the lifting of sanctions against the Russian Federation, its return to energy markets, especially the energy market in Europe, and the possibility of preserving Russian assets now frozen in the European Union and transferring them to the Russian Federation.

Third is that Putin is using the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to his exclusive advantage. That is, to force Kiev to agree to Russian conditions, which, according to the Kremlin's calculations, can lead to destabilization of the internal situation in Ukraine and facilitate the actions of Russian troops.

And Putin continues to hope for these troops. Now military experts are talking about the deployment of new Russian troops in the eastern and southern directions, which may indicate Moscow's desire to prepare for a new, already spring offensive on Ukrainian positions.

Or the deployment of these troops and resources is a new element of Putin's bluff just to put pressure on both Ukraine and Western countries, to emphasize that if they do not quickly agree to his conditions, including territorial concessions to Ukraine, its ideological reformatting into a satellite of the Russian Federation and the lifting of sanctions against Russia, a new offensive will begin with attempts to seize new Ukrainian territories.

But against the background of the fact that the current Russian offensive has not actually led to any strategically important results, these elements of Moscow's bluff are primarily designed for one single audience, the president of the United States.

And the signals that Putin, with the help of Lavrov, is now addressing to Trump are primarily related to the desire to convince the American president to more effectively force Ukraine and our European allies to agree to the blackmail of the Russian president and his entourage, which supports the idea of an endless war on Ukraine.