Ahead of the expected Trump-Putin call, each side stakes out its position

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's parliament, said during a plenary session that under Trump, the United States would "seek to retain its hegemony."After all, these officials point out, in his first term, Trump's administration increased sanctions on Russia and provided the first lethal arms to Ukraine.
45% : Sensing increasing progress on the battlefield amid the strong possibility that Trump will scale back military aid to Ukraine, many in Moscow appear to be doubling down, believing Russia can seize more territory and force Kyiv to accept a deal later in the year.
45% : "But by autumn, while Trump reduces financing and while the Russian army makes further progress, maybe by then there will be better political conditions.
45% : "Trump, however, has called for a swift resolution to the war, and is expected to push for negotiations immediately.
42% : In a post Wednesday on Truth Social, he threatened to put "high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States," unless Putin agreed to a peace deal with Ukraine.
39% : "Among these calls for caution and for the rejection of illusion, some hope is still peeping through because Trump is not a standard politician, and some surprises can be expected from him," said a Russian academic with ties to senior diplomatic officials.
39% : According to Stanovaya, the maximalist demands circulated by pro-Kremlin hawks indicate Putin's willingness to fight on in the war if he does not get what he wants from Trump.
39% : "At this meeting, they won't be able to reach a compromise on the Ukraine problem but they will find a compromise on other questions," he said, adding that he was hopeful about possible concessions from Trump, for example reinstating the ban on Kyiv using Western missiles to target Russia.
38% : A major danger for Putin is the possibility that Trump could ramp up economic pressure on Russia by driving down oil prices, with his "drill, baby, drill" mantra, as well as his threat Wednesday that he would impose ever tougher new sanctions to bring Putin to the negotiating table.
33% : "Several senior Russian officials have also expressed growing caution that Trump could pursue Washington's interests aggressively, at Russia's expense.
33% : "Markov, the pro-Kremlin analyst, said a call between Trump and Putin would unblock the dialogue between Moscow and Washington, establish a working group on Ukraine and pave the way for a summit meeting.
30% : "Trump will demonstrate he ended the war.
27% : Patrushev and other hard-liners represent an influential section of Russia's political elite, she said, but the final judgment on a deal with Trump would come from Putin alone.
25% : But there are risks for Putin, notably due to the growing strain on Russia's economy and the steep cost of the war, that could be further exacerbated if Trump follows through on his sanctions threat.
21% : I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal," Trump said about Putin earlier this week, adding that Russia was "in big trouble.
18% : Kremlin hard-liners are calling for the dismemberment of Ukraine, while Trump is threatening new sanctions if Putin doesn't come to the negotiating table.
11% : Last year, Trump strongly criticized the Biden administration's easing of restrictions on the use of Western weapons.

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