Overview

• Sergey Lavrov arrived in Anchorage wearing a CCCP sweatshirt, a bold display of Soviet nostalgia at the opening of the summit.
• The meeting has been reconfigured from a private one-on-one to a three-on-three format including senior U.S. and Russian delegates.
• Former officials and analysts described Lavrov’s attire and the reported in-flight chicken Kiev meal as provocative acts rather than sincere diplomacy.
• The USSR symbolism echoes Vladimir Putin’s long-standing rhetoric that the Soviet collapse was a geopolitical catastrophe and that Ukraine is inseparable from Russia.
• Observers warn that such theatrical optics risk allowing Moscow to manipulate the summit narrative and derail substantive Ukraine discussions.