US-Russia Summit: From “Two Weeks” to “No Precise Timeframe”

The timeline for a potential Trump-Putin summit has rapidly decelerated from “two weeks” to “no precise timeframe.” The new assessment came from the Kremlin on Tuesday, with a US official echoing that “no plans” exist for a meeting in the “immediate future.”
This is a stark reversal from President Trump’s position last week. After a call with Putin, he announced on social media that a Budapest summit was imminent.
The announcement triggered a “productive” phone call on Monday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to plan the meeting.
Despite the positive diplomatic call, an anonymous administration official confirmed on Tuesday that the summit was not happening as described. The official said a separate in-person meeting for the diplomats was “not necessary.”
This change marks the latest “abrupt shift” by Trump, who welcomed Putin to Alaska in August. It also comes as Trump was scheduled to meet Ukraine’s president to discuss missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.