This is Brian Lairr's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Thursday, August 14th.

I'm Amina Surnah, a producer for the Brian Lair Show, filling in for Brian today.

We turn to President Donald Trump's one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin,

scheduled to take place tomorrow.

Setting out to fulfill his campaign promise of ending Russia's war in Ukraine,

Trump has invited the Russian leader to a military base in Alaska.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

will not be attending, as requested by Putin. European Union ministers concerned that any deal

without Ukraine at the table could force Zelensky to make unfair land concessions, called

an emergency meeting with Ukraine's leader yesterday. President Trump

joined remotely. Joining us now to break down the latest and what's at stake is Jonathan

Lemire, co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, writer for MSNBC, and the contributing

writer for The Atlantic. His latest in the Atlantic is titled, Vladimir

Putin could be laying a trap. Jonathan, welcome back to WNYC. Good morning. Always great to be here.

Last time we invited you on, we had to go to live special coverage from NPR, roughly two minutes into our conversation.

So I really appreciate you coming back on with me. All right.

Happy to do it. Maybe short doses is the best way to handle me.

All right. So in July, Russia ramped up its bombardment of Ukraine launching a record 6,443 drones and missiles into the country.

But you write, quote, Vladimir Putin has had a tough few months. What's bringing Putin to the summit now, in your view?

So this was, summer was viewed as pretty crucial for Moscow. They wanted to launch after

the conflict had really been rather frozen, the front lines for a number of months, almost a year.

...