According to a Reuters reporter on the scene, the United States has imposed its harshest sanctions on Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Kremlin. He was seen earlier today at a restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska, along with several other Russian officials.

Tomorrow, Putin will arrive in Alaska to meet with Trump, and Peskov and others are likely to have arrived ahead of time as a vanguard.

The White House announced that the summit between Putin and Trump in Anchorage will begin at 10 p.m. Moscow time on Friday, which is 3 a.m. Beijing time on the morning of the 16th.

The pro-Western Ukrainian media outlet Kyiv Post reported that the Putin-Trump meeting will start at 22:00 Kiev time, lasting no more than seven hours. According to insiders, previous reports indicated that the meeting would start at 22:30 Kiev time.

However, according to the updated schedule of the U.S. president, the meeting will start slightly earlier, and Trump will leave Alaska for Washington at 04:45 the next day.

Data from the flight tracking platform Flightradar24 shows that an Il-96-300 aircraft from the "Russia" special mission squadron flew from Moscow's Vnukovo Airport to Anchorage Airport in Alaska, USA.

However, according to statements released by Peskov, on August 15, Putin will visit the Magadan region, inspect industrial production, and hold talks with the governor of the region, Nosov. Then he will fly to Alaska, USA.

Therefore, the Il-96 aircraft earlier must have been carrying other personnel ahead of time.

Evidently, President Putin may not have high expectations for this meeting. As Trump said, the probability of success is 75%. That is to say, there may be results, but what kind of results can be achieved, especially regarding the Ukraine-Russia issue, remains unknown.

However, according to the previously announced list of participants, both sides' finance ministers are also going, which may involve issues of sanctions, even possibly including the frozen Russian assets by the West.

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1840507354413059/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.