In souvenir shops in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, among the colorful wooden matryoshkas, the faces of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin stand out.

These two will sit down face to face on Friday in Alaska, first in a closed-door meeting and then with expanded delegations. The talks will begin at 10:30 p.m. Bulgarian time, followed by a joint press conference. The main topic is expected to be the war in Ukraine, but the agenda also includes trade and bilateral cooperation between the United States and Russia.

In one of his latest interviews, Trump described the upcoming talks as “a chess game,” preparing the ground for a possible meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at “making a deal.”

“There will be bargaining over borders, lands, and so on,” Trump said. “This meeting is preparation for the second one, but there is a 25% chance it won’t be successful.”

Thus, much like matryoshkas – where one doll hides another inside – the diplomatic game between Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv unfolds. | BGNES