By Aneta Zachová and Charles Szumski

(EurActiv) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is waiting for the 2024 US elections, hoping to negotiate on the future of the Russia-Ukraine war with Donald Trump without the involvement of any European state, Czech President Petr Pavel has said.

Meanwhile, Finland, whose NATO membership has been strongly criticised by Moscow, has granted the US military unrestricted access to military facilities close to the Finnish-Russian border.

“President Putin has made it quite clear that there can be no discussion of any peace talks until the outcome of the election in the United States. He has thus made it clear that for him, the partner for possible negotiations is none other than the United States. Nor any of the major European countries,” Pavel told news site Seznam Zprávy in an interview.

Pavel warned that if Donald Trump were to win the US presidential elections, Putin could try to negotiate with him “regardless of what Ukraine or the rest of Europe thinks”.

According to the Czech president, such negotiations between Putin and Trump could lead to “some sort of compromise that will notionally return Russia to the status of a key player, and the others will have to somehow come to terms with that.”

Pavel, who served as the NATO military committee head before becoming Czech........

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