Italian General Maurizio Boni (ret.) said the meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin is “very important,” in an interview with Italy’s Ilsussidiario.net
The meeting’s usefulness “would probably lie in putting Trump in a position to understand what he needs to do in the future” said Boni, who is a frequent writer for the military magazine Difesa Online. He added: “In my opinion, Trump is now at a crossroads: He has to make a decision about escalation. In my view, there are two ‘extreme’ scenarios, so to speak. The first is that Trump wants to avoid escalation. Obviously, we all hope for that. But this means getting rid of warmongers like Senator Lindsey Graham, who is one of the biggest advocates of drastic confrontation with Russia at all costs. That’s not enough, because Trump must then persuade Zelenskyy to accept Moscow’s conditions, and above all, he must ensure that the Europeans do not sabotage his possible peace plan.
“At the other extreme, we find the opposite scenario. In this case, according to Trump, any escalation is manageable—or he deludes himself that it is—so he does not dismiss the warmongers, but rather indulges them in some way, does not put pressure on Zelenskyy, and above all ensures that the Europeans support his vision. That is why the meeting will be very important. Trump will be able to understand exactly how much room for maneuver he has.”
