This week, the fictional spirit of Anchorage, invented in Moscow, began to evaporate completely. Initially, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that no real agreements were reached in Anchorage – only proposals were discussed. Later, American media reported that during the G7 summit in Evian, U.S. President Donald Trump made it clear that he no longer wanted to return to the understanding in Anchorage and sharply criticized his Russian counterpart. Now, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is saying that he would not like to think that the meeting in Anchorage was used for rearming Ukraine.

In reality, Trump did not want to use the meeting with the Russian president to arm Ukraine. He wanted to use it to end the Russian-Ukrainian war. That is why, on the eve of the presidents' meeting in Alaska, the special representative of the American president, Steve Witkoff, flew to the Russian capital. He brought Putin a package of American proposals. Obviously, among these proposals could have been an agreement to withdraw Ukrainian troops from the part of the Donetsk region still controlled by the legitimate government of Ukraine. And this matched Putin's desires. However, other points might not have matched Putin's desires – about preserving Ukraine's sovereignty and independence, maintaining its armed forces, and European integration. Putin, who still hopes to destroy Ukrainian statehood, was not going to agree to this.

During the summit in the Alaskan capital, Putin returned to Witkoff's points and asked the American representative to confirm that these were indeed his proposals. Witkoff affirmatively responded to each point that Putin read out in the presence of Trump and other negotiation participants. But the focus is that Putin was not ready to agree to all the points, and Trump was not going to abandon them. Therefore, the meeting ended without any real results, which Trump confirmed during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart.

Already on the plane, on the way to Washington, Trump, apparently realizing that the world media would talk about the summit's fiasco, tried to prevent this. He spoke of a very successful meeting but did not provide any specifics about the decisions reached. The Kremlin decided to use this desire of the American president to present the desired as reality – and that is when the fiction about the spirit of Anchorage appeared. From the Kremlin's point of view, this spirit, which replaces real agreements, signifies a willingness to accept those American conditions that align with Putin's expansionist line, but not a willingness to agree to those that would allow the Ukrainian state to survive. Meanwhile, Putin is not against negotiations if they occur during hostilities, as he hopes the negotiation process will give Americans the opportunity to pressure Kyiv to withdraw troops from the Donetsk region. Trump expects something else from Putin – a cessation of hostilities or a quick agreement on the main points of a peace treaty that would allow the war to end. But the American administration does not deny the very idea of the existence of such a spirit – because otherwise, they would have to acknowledge Trump's fiasco in Alaska.

In the end, nothing happens. The Russians are not ready to seriously discuss a peace treaty, Ukraine does not agree to leave the Donetsk region. Trump begins an operation against Iran and faces the most serious test of his political career, and, of course, he is no longer concerned with the Russian-Ukrainian war. Putin is disappointed that American pressure on Kyiv has led to nothing and announces that he is withdrawing from the Russian-Ukrainian negotiation process.

Currently, there is no process happening – however, Ukrainian forces are striking Russian strategic targets. This creates hope for Trump, who is slowly extricating himself from the Middle Eastern crisis, that now it will be possible to force Putin into negotiations based on the desire to end the war, rather than the desire to buy time and use Washington to pressure Kyiv. No one talks about the spirit of Anchorage anymore.

Because there was no such spirit.