{"id":2176,"date":"2025-08-16T21:07:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2025-08-16T21:07:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:07:50","slug":"read-full-press-conference-transcript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2176","title":{"rendered":"Read Full Press Conference Transcript"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All eyes were on Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for pivotal talks over the future of the Kremlin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine\u2014without their Ukrainian counterpart at the table.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the days leading up to the summit, Trump appeared to downplay expectations for the talks and any potential diplomatic breakthroughs. But he struck a tougher tone hours ahead of the talks, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/national-security-daily\/2025\/08\/15\/agonizing-about-alaska-00512376\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">telling reporters<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> aboard Air Force One: \u201cI want to see a cease-fire rapidly. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be today, but I\u2019m not going to be happy if it\u2019s not today.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once in Anchorage, the two leaders appeared cozy, with Trump literally rolling out a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/08\/15\/trump-putin-summit-alaska-russia-ukraine-red-carpet-cease-fire\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">red carpet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the Russian leader and even allowing him to ride in Trump\u2019s presidential limousine, known as the \u201cBeast.\u201d The warm reception stood in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/02\/18\/vance-speech-munich-full-text-read-transcript-europe\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sharp contrast<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/02\/28\/trump-zelensky-meeting-transcript-full-text-video-oval-office\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fiery and hostile exchange<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that occurred when Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in February.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Trump and Putin were initially expected to meet for one-on-one talks, the two leaders were ultimately accompanied by several top advisors in a last-minute change of plans. Trump was joined by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff, while Putin brought Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov. The group met for 2 hours and 45 minutes, according to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MoscowTimes\/status\/1956481222688829879\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kremlin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But even after a press conference with both leaders afterward, it\u2019s not entirely clear what the two leaders agreed to, if anything. \u201cThere\u2019s no deal until there\u2019s a deal,\u201d Trump <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/politics\/live-news\/trump-putin-meeting-news-08-15-25\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, later adding: \u201cWe didn\u2019t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below is the full rush transcript of Trump and Putin\u2019s press conference. <\/span><\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin-horizontal-rule\"\/>\n<p><b>Vladimir Putin:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. Our negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of mutual respect. We had very thorough negotiations that were quite useful. I would like to thank once again my American counterpart for the proposal to travel out here to Alaska. It only makes sense that we\u2019ve met here because our countries, though separated by the oceans, are close neighbors. So when we met, when I came out of the plane and I said, \u201cGood afternoon, dear neighbor, very good to see you in good health and to see you alive,\u201d I think that is very neighborly, and I think that\u2019s some kind words that we can say to each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re separated by the Strait of Bering, though there are two islands only between the Russian island and the U.S. island. They\u2019re only 4 kilometers apart. We\u2019re close neighbors, and it\u2019s a fact. It\u2019s also important that Alaska has to do with our common heritage, common history between Russia and the U.S., and many positive events have to do with that territory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, there is tremendous cultural heritage back from the Russian America [sic]. For example, Orthodox churches and a lot of more than 700 geographical names of Russian origin. During the Second World War, it was here in Alaska that was the origin of the legendary air bridge for the supply of military aircraft and other equipment under the Lend-Lease Program. There was a dangerous and treacherous route over the vast emptiness of ice. However, the pilots of both countries did everything to bring closer the victory. They risked their lives, and they gave it all for their common victory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was just in the city of Magadan in Russia. There was a memorial there dedicated to the Russian and the U.S pilots. And there are two flags: the U.S flag and the Russian flag. And I know that here, as well, there is such a memorial. There is a military burial place several kilometers away from here. The Soviet pilots are buried there who died during that dangerous mission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re thankful to the citizens and government of the U.S. for carefully taking care of their memory. I think that\u2019s very worthy and noble.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ll always remember other historical examples when our countries defeated common enemies together in the spirit of battle, camaraderie, and allyship\u2014that supported each other, facilitated each other. I\u2019m sure that this heritage will help us rebuild and foster mutually beneficial and equal ties at this new stage, even during the hardest conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is known that there have been no summits between Russia and the U.S. for four years, and that\u2019s a long time. This time was very hard for bilateral relations, and let\u2019s be frank, they\u2019ve fallen to the lowest point since the Cold War. I think that\u2019s not benefiting our countries and the world as a whole. It is imperative, sooner or later, we have to amend the situation to move on from the confrontation to dialogue. And in this case, a personal meeting between the heads of state has been long overdue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naturally, under the condition of serious and painstaking work,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this work has been done. In general, me and President Trump have very good direct contact. We\u2019ve spoken multiple times. We spoke frankly on the phone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And special envoy of the president Mr. Witkoff traveled down to Russia several times. Our advisors and heads of foreign ministries kept in touch all the time, and you know fully well that one of the central issues was the situation around Ukraine. We see the strive [sic] of the administration and President Trump personally to help facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, and his strive to get to the crux of the matter, to understand this history, is precious.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I\u2019ve said, the situation in Ukraine has to do with fundamental threats to our security. Moreover, [we] would always consider the Ukrainian nation, and I\u2019ve said it multiple times, a brotherly nation. However strange it may sound in these conditions, we have the same roots, and everything that\u2019s happening is a tragedy for us and [a] terrible wound.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore, the country is sincerely interested in putting an end to it. At the same time, we\u2019re convinced that in order to make the settlement lasting and long-term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict, and we\u2019ve said it multiple times, to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in [the] world on the whole. And I agree with President Trump as he has said today, that naturally the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would like to hope that the agreement that we\u2019ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path toward peace in Ukraine. We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won\u2019t throw a wrench in the works and will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealing to conduct propositions to torpedo the nascent progress.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incidentally, when the new administration came to power, bilateral trade started to grow. It\u2019s still very symbolic. Still, we have a growth of 20 percent. As I said, we have a lot of dimensions for joint work, and it\u2019s clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business cooperation have tremendous potential. Russia and the U.S can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high-tech, and in space exploration. We see that Arctic cooperation is also very possible in our international context, for example, in between the Far East of Russia and the West Coast of the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, it\u2019s very important for our countries to turn the page, to go back to cooperation. It is symbolic that not far away from here, in the water between Russia and [the] U.S., there is a so-called international dateline. I think you can step over literally from yesterday into tomorrow, and I hope that we\u2019ll succeed in that in [the] political sphere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would like to thank President Trump for our joint work, for the well-wishing and trustworthy tone of our conversation. It\u2019s important that both sides are result-oriented, and we see that the president of the U.S. has a very clear idea of what he would like to achieve. He sincerely cares about the prosperity of his nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still he understands that Russia has its own national interests. I expect that today\u2019s agreements will be the starting point, not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue but also will help us bring back businesslike and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And in the end, I would like to add one more thing. I\u2019d like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities. And I said it quite directly back then that it\u2019s a big mistake.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, when President Trump was saying that if he was the president back then, there will be no war, and I\u2019m quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that. I think that overall, me and President Trump have built a very good businesslike and trustworthy contact, and I have every reason to believe that moving down this path, we can come, the sooner the better, to the end of the conflict in Ukraine. Thank you. Thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Donald Trump: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you very much. Mr. President, that was very profound, and I will say that I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven\u2019t quite gotten there, but we\u2019ve made some headway. So there\u2019s no deal until there\u2019s a deal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate, and I\u2019ll of course call up President Zelensky and tell him about today\u2019s meeting. It\u2019s ultimately up to them. They\u2019re gonna have to agree with what Marco [Rubio] and Steve [Witkoff] and some of the great people from the Trump administration who\u2019ve come here, [U.S. Treasury Secretary] Scott [Bessent] and [CIA Director] John Ratcliffe. Thank you very much. We have some of our really great leaders. They\u2019ve been doing a phenomenal job.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also have some tremendous Russian business representatives here. And I think you know, everybody wants to deal with us. We\u2019ve become the hottest country anywhere in the world in a very short period of time. And we look forward to that\u2014we look forward to dealing. We\u2019re going to try and get this over with. We really made some great progress today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir. We had many, many tough meetings, good meetings. We were interfered with by the \u201cRussia, Russia, Russia\u201d hoax that made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it. I think he\u2019s probably seen things like that during the course of his career. He\u2019s seen it all, but we had to put up with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax, but what was done was very criminal, but it made it harder for us to deal as a country in terms of the business and all of the things that we\u2019d like to have dealt with, but we\u2019ll have a good chance when this is over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, just to put it very quickly, I\u2019m going to start making a few phone calls and tell him what happened, but we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to. And there are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant; one is probably the most significant. But we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn\u2019t get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would like to thank President Putin and his entire team whose faces who I know, in many cases, otherwise other than that whose faces I get to see all the time in the newspapers. You\u2019re almost as famous as the boss, especially this one right over here [pointing to Lavrov].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we had some good meetings over the years, right? Good, productive meetings over the years, and we hope to have that in the future. But let\u2019s do the most productive one right now. We\u2019re going to stop, really, 5, 6, 7,000, thousands of people a week from being killed, and President Putin wants to see that as much as I do, so, again, Mr. President, I\u2019d like to thank you very much, and we\u2019ll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon. Thank you very much, Vladimir.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Putin:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Next time in Moscow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Trump:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Oh, that\u2019s an interesting one. I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ll get a little heat on that one, but I, I can see it possibly happening. Thank you very much, Vladimir, and thank you all. Thank you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/08\/15\/trump-putin-summit-press-conference-transcript-full-text-read\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All eyes were on Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for pivotal talks over the future of the Kremlin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine\u2014without their Ukrainian counterpart at the table. In the days leading up to the summit, Trump appeared to downplay expectations for the talks and any [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politcical-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}