The ex-KGB Russian , who has complete control over HIM country is out playing the American President so far….
The Ukrainian President is having NO part of the game…
Donald Trump seems vastly out of league in this one (Gaza and China also)….
The piece linked below is a very good thing to read to grasp the mind of Vladimir Putin, who REALLY does WANT to grab Ukraine back and would seek to get even more of the old Soviet Union back under his control…
The American President thinks he can do something none of his predecessors have been able to do….
Get Putin’s Russia as part of the West….
The Reality IS as pointed out below….
Putin wants no part of it…
He wants to stay in his own sandbox, were he CAN control things…..
Sound familiar?
US President Donald Trump is finding out that getting through to Russian President Vladimir Putin is not as easy as he might have thought. But he’s only the latest US leader to fail at an attempt to get Russia and its longtime president on board.
The Trump administration’s attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine have largely stalled, despite a flurry of diplomatic activity.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has held at least two lengthy phone calls with Putin and has repeatedly sent his envoy Steve Witkoff to meet the Russian leader in person in Moscow, with the latest trip on Friday.
Unsurprisingly to many Kremlin-watchers, none of these meetings have led to an agreement. Not only did Witkoff come back empty-handed, he also repeated several key Kremlin talking points.
The latest US proposal includes recognizing Russian control of Crimea – a long-standing red line for Ukraine and its European allies, officials familiar with the details have told CNN.
“I would say the negotiations are going very well — from Putin’s point of view,” Angela Stent, a foreign policy expert and former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, told CNN.
“He has no intention of stopping the war, but what he wants, and what he’s getting, is a restoration of US-Russian diplomatic relations.”
“Putin is playing a waiting game because he believes that time is on his side and that he can force Ukraine into a more disadvantageous position and persuade Kyiv and its European allies with the help of Washington that there is no alternative to a peace settlement on Russian terms,” John Lough, the head of foreign policy at New Eurasian Strategies Centre, a think tank based in London and Washington, told CNN.
Stalling, haggling over every detail, or saying no without explicitly saying “no” is a classic Russian tactic, employed by Putin and his top negotiators on several occasions in the past, such as during the negotiations for a ceasefire in Syria.
It’s unclear whether the Trump administration didn’t see it coming because it doesn’t have the expertise that would have led it to expect such behavior, or if it has simply decided to play along.
Trump’s words since coming back into office indicate that he sees the world in a similar way to Putin, Stent said – as consisting of a handful of great powers to whom smaller countries should submit….
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“Putin famously described his job in the KGB as ‘work with people.’ He was trained in the art of manipulating interlocutors. He is known to prepare meticulously for negotiations and is a master of detail,” Lough told CNN, adding that the Russian leader is known to be “quick on his feet and can charm and intimidate in the same breath.”
Putin has employed this technique on Trump in the past, according to Kalina Zhekova, an associate professor at University College London (UCL) who specializes in Russian foreign policy….
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He was also likely aware that his counterpart is someone with a fragile ego who is easily impressed by theatrical gestures and gifts,” Zhekova said, adding that the summit was widely seen as a win for Putin, because Trump was reluctant to denounce Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election, contradicting US intelligence reports and effectively siding with the Kremlin.
Putin has many tricks in his diplomatic toolbox. He likes to keep his counterparts waiting by turning up late for meetings – sometimes by several hours. He often creates chaotic situations to get more options and can change his mind when it suits him, which makes it even more difficult to negotiate with him…..(Trump-ish?)
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Stent pointed to the fact that Gen. Keith Kellogg, officially Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, has been largely sidelined in the talks with Russia, despite, she said, having the most relevant experience. “Of course, he’s a general, he’s not a diplomat, but at least he has some experience with Russia and thinking about these things, but of course, he’s only dealing with Ukraine.”
The mismatch in expertise extends beyond Witkoff to the rest of the US negotiating team too.
Instead of Kellogg, Witkoff was accompanied on some of his trips by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz. Both are experienced politicians but have no proven track record when it comes to Russia….
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“(The Trump administration) are eager to have a deal, but unwilling to pay a high cost for that deal – so no US security guarantees, no boots on the ground (and) they’re unwilling to surge US aid to Ukraine as a stick to try to get Russia to make concessions,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, the director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates for more restrained US foreign policy.
She added that, for Trump, getting the US out of Ukraine and stabilizing relations with Russia are more important than achieving peace.
Putin knows this. Russia’s launch of several major attacks against Ukraine over the past few weeks, including on Kyiv, indicates the Kremlin’s belief that the leverage US has – or is willing to use – is limited….
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The key problem, experts say, is that the US and Russia simply do not understand each other – now or in decades past.
“I don’t think that most US administrations have understood really the depth of Russia’s shift towards not just authoritarianism, but to a brand of authoritarianism that sees the existence of Western power and particularly sort of the unity of the transatlantic relationship as deeply threatening to Russia’s interests,” Greene said.
Thomas Graham, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who was the senior director for Russia on the National Security Council staff from 2004 to 2007, said that the key mistake American presidents made after the breakup of the Soviet Union was thinking that it was possible to develop a broad strategic partnership with Russia.
“I would argue that given Russian interest, given Russian history and Russian traditions, that was never really on the cards. And so we tended to exaggerate the possibilities for cooperation, and then were deeply disappointed when we didn’t get it,” he told CNN….
image…Rolling Stone
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