Direct Line with Putin: Is the Kremlin Ready to End the War?

Source: Author’s Facebook page

Putin’s appearance with hours-long answers to questions from journalists and “ordinary Russians” during the “direct line” once again demonstrated that the Russian president continues to literally live the war and has no intention of ending it.

Even during this direct line, Russians asked Putin why their television was always talking about Ukraine, and not about Russia. And Putin agreed that it needed to be ended. But it was unclear what – war or propaganda.

But during this meeting with journalists, I was interested in a completely different question: what are the United States counting on when they hope to “lead” the Russian president to some kind of peace agreement? After all, so far, neither in Putin’s statements nor in the comments of other Russian officials has there been even a hint of a willingness to end the war. Yes, there was talk of surrender. Europe was threatened with war. But this is not peace at all.

Even when it came to the Ukrainian elections – and Putin keeps talking about the “illegitimacy” of the Ukrainian president – the Russian president promised to think about it, maybe for one day – the day of the elections – to stop shelling Ukraine. That is, as we can see, Putin is not interested in any real elections in a neighboring country. But he is interested in the surrender and “liberation of Russian lands”. And he does not hide this.

Yes, I can imagine that in informal communication with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Putin does not speak in slogans. As an experienced Chekist and manipulator, he can tell his American interlocutors what they want to hear. Now we already know that Putin himself sought contact with Witkoff and even involved Saudi Prince Mohammed in his mediation. Why Witkoff? Perhaps precisely because the Russian president understood how and what to talk about with this old friend of Donald Trump and how to get in touch with Trump himself not with the help of another official, but with the assistance of a trusted person?

So, what can Putin really talk about for hours with his American guests? About the war? Of course not. About the economy. Putin is able to paint convincing pictures of economic cooperation before Witkoff and Kushner. After the war. But then the war begins to look like only unpleasant circumstances that prevent the transition to this cooperation. And the pressure begins not on Russia, but on Ukraine, which with its “stubbornness” prevents the transition to exciting deals. But if there were no such “stubbornness” – there would be no problems.

This is a good calculation, but if you look at it realistically: what has Putin achieved? Has he managed to stop the sanctions against his main “wallets” – Lukoil and Rosneft? No, he has not. The sanctions have been introduced and are already in effect, which forces countries such as China and India to limit the volume of purchases and processing of Russian oil.

Did Putin manage to prevent the allocation of European money for Ukraine? Yes, he prevented the final confiscation of Russian assets in European accounts – and Donald Trump himself was obviously interested in this, for some reason convinced that the confiscation of Russian assets would hinder the implementation of his peace plan. But the Europeans decided to allocate their own money, which deprived Moscow of hopes that the Ukrainian economy would collapse next year.

The day that will demonstrate Putin’s unwillingness to agree to peace will definitely come, no matter how much the Russian president stalls. Yes, both he and Trump want a full peace agreement. But Trump wants it to happen as soon as possible, while Putin is ready to stall until, say, January 2029, Trump’s last day in the Oval Office.

Therefore, conflict seems inevitable. It remains to be seen how Trump himself will react to the collapse of his illusions and Putin’s treachery.

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