ROME, July 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin succeeded in achieving specific results at a meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump in Finland’s capital of Helsinki on Monday, analyst with Italy’s Limes geopolitical magazine told TASS on Tuesday.

According to the expert, Russia has been partially rehabilitated on the international stage as a preliminary result of the summit. "The Crimea page has been turned over now, Russia is no longer globally considered as a hostile state," he said.

Fabbri added that "Trump could promise an easing of sanctions, at least those that the US president is eligible to remove [without the consent of the Congress - TASS]." Putin, in turn, could promise Russia’s assistance in deterring Iran in the Middle East and the pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine," he added.

However, in his view, "the results that Putin achieved are more specific," while Russia’s promises seem more unclear and vague.

Fabbri also stressed that "we still need to see what consequences it will have in the long term." According to the analyst, Russia considers guarantees of Ukraine’s neutrality as a basis for talks. "Putin is trying to make the US guarantee that Ukraine will join neither NATO nor the Western orbit," he noted.

Trump shows consistency

Fabbri pointed out that the US president had once again showed consistency. "Trump raised the issue of relations with Russia even before being elected president, before the investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the presidential election was launched. By the way, the investigation may have more modest results than we expect now," the expert said.

"A thing to remember is that Trump has an ‘economic’ view of the world," he went on to say. "From this standpoint, Russia is not America’s rival. He believes that economically, Russia is a weak country and in no way can stand in Washington’s way. However, as far as nuclear disarmament and other military issues go, Russia may be useful to the US, particularly in resolving regional crises, and this is what Trump sees as a basis for negotiations and agreements," Fabbri said. "This was the reason behind Trump’s wish to meet with Putin," the expert concluded.

Putin-Trump meeting

The first full-fledged talks between the presidents of Russia and the United States took place in Finland’s capital of Helsinki on Monday. The one-on-one meeting between Putin and Trump lasted more than two hours, later delegation members joined the presidents for a working lunch. The Russian delegation was composed of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov. The US delegation included Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton. The expanded session also took about two hours.

Putin and Trump first held talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. In November 2017, the Russian and US heads of state held a brief meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Vietnam, adopting a joint statement on Syria. In addition, the two leaders have also held several telephone conversations.

Both presidents said after the Helsinki summit that a big step forward had been taken.