'Putin and his cronies laugh at Trump': Ex-Swedish PM says US being 'played' by Russia
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt has criticized President Donald Trump for his failure to restore peace in Ukraine despite his pledge to end the war on "day one."
"It has been nearly 100 days since Donald Trump returned to the U.S. presidency and Russian missiles continue to rain down on Ukrainian civilians. Despite Trump’s pledge to end the war on 'day one,' peace is nowhere in sight. When will the administration acknowledge that it is failing?" Bildt wrote in an op-ed published in the Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent on Monday.
He added that there has been no ceasefire, nor are there any signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to agree to one. "He has continued to launch attacks on civilian targets in Ukrainian cities with impunity," wrote the former Swedish PM.
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Bildt noted that since Trump's first conversation with Putin, the Russian president and his team have been reluctant to show flexibility and make progress in the negotiations. The Swedish politician went on to call Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff an "inexperienced negotiator," saying that he has been dragged down "a rabbit hole of complex conditionalities and impossible demands" by the Russian side.
"After many weeks of this, even the most dimwitted of negotiators should have realized that Putin has no intention of agreeing to a ceasefire or accepting Trump’s plan or timetable," Bildt said of Witkoff.
"In theory, Trump himself could change course by applying serious pressure on Putin and stepping up support for Ukraine. If that were to happen, he might then achieve the ceasefire that he seeks. Otherwise, he will continue to fail — as Putin and his cronies laugh at him behind his back," he added.
Bildt said Putin was "playing" Trump by deploying "all the resources at his disposal."
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"Everyone knows that the U.S. president is highly susceptible to flattery, and Putin has gone overboard in arguing that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was 'stolen,' and that the war never would have happened with Trump in office. He wants us to believe that he went to his private chapel to pray for Trump after the assassination attempt in 2024, and he has even had the Kremlin court artist paint a portrait of Trump as a gift," he said.
Meanwhile, Witkoff is slated to visit Moscow this week, according to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov who confirmed the planned visit to Russian state-controlled media outlet Interfax.
Witkoff, who serves as the Trump administration's representative to the Middle East, has traveled to Russia multiple times this year, engaging in three meetings with Putin. His actions have faced backlash from officials in both the U.S. and Ukraine for advocating positions that align with the Kremlin, such as the proposal of exchanging Ukrainian land for peace.
AlterNet reached out to the State Department for comment.
