Also said if Trump had been in power, the crisis in Ukraine would never have happened. This is how Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy responded.
He wants to manipulate the desire of the President of the United States of America to achieve peace. I am confident that no Russian manipulations will succeed anymore.
Joining us now to talk more about this, an expert on Russia, CNN contributor and former CNN, Moscow Bureau Chief, Jill Dordy. It's so great to have you here, Jill. First, let's just start with what President Zelenskyy was saying there. Is Putin using manipulation tactics on Trump?
Well, I think definitely. I mean, that is part of the playbook as a former KGB agent. But in a broader way, with Putin, there is always a subtext. On the other hand, all these threats that are coming or came a few days ago from President Trump, Putin essentially is saying, Oh, we have a great relationship, business-like relations. President Trump would never do anything to hurt his economy, et cetera. Then you have the spokesperson for Putin essentially saying, there's nothing new here. President Trump likes sanctions, but sanctions aren't going to work because our President has been putting up with that for a very long time, et cetera. But I think the ultimate game for Putin is he wants to be back on the world stage as a leader who is on the level of President Trump. So that is what he's looking for. That's the most important thing. And Obviously, Ukraine is very, very important to Putin in a way that a lot of other issues are not. But the super important thing is to be at the table and to be a dealmaker and a decider.
And you've You describe solving the war in Ukraine as devilishly complicated, especially now that North Korea is involved. Tell us more about how you're thinking about that. Explain why that is.
Well, President Trump has said he It has to solve it very quickly, maybe now, 100 days from now. But if you look at this issue right now, it's almost like a puzzle. You have a huge war in the middle of Europe, which is completely pulled apart a lot of the relationships previously. Nato has grown, Russia is more torquilant, et cetera. Then you have the fact that North Korean troops, 10,000 of them, are fighting and dying in Ukraine right now for Russia. So North Korea, nuclear power, by the way, as we know, is engaged. Then you have China. China is engaged in a way of, let's say, helping Russia to avoid sanctions. So you can see the complications of all of this right now, not to mention nuclear arms agreements, et cetera. So I think to get the details, what does President Trump think he's going to do to really come to some conclusion. And I think what he's done is simply said, I don't want this anymore. Take it off the table and let my guys figure it out.
Yeah. And so to that in, not that you have a crystal ball, but what might that look like in the coming month or so?
Well, yeah, it is complicated. But I think if you look at Zelensky, because you can see him in the middle, He wants probably some agreement, ultimately, but what an agreement. And he sees Trump coming in, making moves, not always clear where he's going. So I think best case for Zelensky Zelensky for Ukraine would be war comes to an end. There is some long term stable security structure in place to protect Ukraine. And that would probably, obviously, mean NATO membership, which is very controversial, et cetera. The worst case, I think, for Zelensky would be Trump stops the aid, especially military aid. Then Zelensky is forced into some type of agreement. He has to give up territory. That's already out there as a possibility. But no NATO membership, as Putin wants, that would be a very big deal. Then the worst thing I think for Ukraine would be if Russia succeeds in taking over Ukraine, and now, obviously, militarily would be a dire consequence, but it could also be undermining Ukraine, taking it over, in a sense, politically and emasculating it so that it cannot become part of the West as it wants to. Then I'm sure you could put a list for Putin as well.
But that's certainly some of the- You're right.
It's complicated. Yes. Jill Doherty, thank you, as always. We really appreciate it.
Sure.
Former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty weighs in on what she thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin's goals are.