Former Russian Deputy Minister: Trump's Concessions to Putin Exceed Kremlin's Expectations

Former Russian Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov said: “The Kremlin seems surprised by the speed with which US President Donald Trump made concessions to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, even before negotiations began to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine.”

“The Kremlin was expecting Trump to make certain demands on Russia,” said Milov, who is also a former adviser to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. “Moscow was preparing some offers here and there to conclude the so-called deal.”

In the same context, Milov added, in his interview with the American network "CNN", from his exile in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, that based on what he heard, "everyone in Moscow is completely surprised now because they got all the concessions they wanted, even before the negotiations began."

Milov, a 50-year-old economist, resigned from the Russian ministry in 2002 when Putin vetoed his plans to break up oil and gas giant Gazprom. Since then, he has devoted his life to what he describes as “exposing corruption and introducing democratic reform in Russia.”

It is worth noting that Vladimir Milov, before his resignation, worked closely with three of Russia's most prominent opposition politicians, who are described as having "paid the price for daring to challenge Putin." After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Milov was added to the Russian Interior Ministry's wanted list.

Currently, a number of scattered media reports say that: “Milov is trying to harm Putin from Lathuania, where he has become one of the regime’s most vocal critics, by writing reports and articles, speaking at conferences and hosting talk shows on the Navalny Live YouTube channel.”

Arabic21