Very good read. The stunning amateurism of the US government is not funny; it is an imminent threat to Ukraine (and the rest of Europe). Europe needs to get its act together, fast.
"A plan of action, which Politico’s Dasha Burns had described (citing a “senior White House official”) as a “fait accompli,” cobbled together without the input or consent of Brussels. “We don’t really care about the Europeans,” said that same senior White House official, even though the EU and NATO will have an outsize say in determining the future of Ukraine and Europe, from sanctions relief to security assistance."
This is Vance speaking. He doesn't give a fig what happens to Ukraine, nor does he give a fig what happens to Europe. He said so out loud in Munich. He's close to Bridge Colby, who wants to cut ties to both Ukraine and Europe. These guys would leave NATO altogether if they had their way. Bad times ahead.
This is the price we (the world) pay for putting idiots in charge of all aspects of government, especially foreign policy. Unserious people do not comprehend the damage their imbecilic and craven actions create in the delicate balance of world peace.
The Trump administration doesn’t actually care about world peace. Trump, his sons, Witkoff and his sons, and Jared Kushner care about making real estate deals with Russia, and Trump wants a Trump tower in Moscow. They need this war to go away so they can make money. $$$ is all these people care about.
To an unqualified but interested observer of international affairs, it would appear that Russia continues to play chess while the US continues to play checkers and Europe and the rest of NATO are relegated to the sidelines supporting Ukraine. America must do better on all fronts, but it’s dubious under the present administration.
This clause “If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or St. Petersburg without cause, the security guarantee will be deemed invalid.”
Seems like a deliberate attempt to sneak an easily triggered revocation of said guarantees and justification of a future invasion. An unattributed missile launch from occupied territory say.
An enlightening read, indeed. It would seem we are all, i.e. the world us in big trouble. We can hear the war drums faintly but inexorably beating here in Europe while inept Americans as usual haven't a clue. So sad.... 1930s style politics echoing down through history.
This is a bunch of incompetent, craven greedy bros derisively playing with millions of lives and billions of dollars. WTF is dead-in-the-eyes Kushner doing involved in ANY of this except to mine for dollars. It is way past time to impeach Trump and every single one of these treasonous bastards.
“…Zhuravlev claimed that the war can only end with Russia’s “unequivocal victory on the front” and with “Ukraine’s capitulation.””
Conversely, there can only be peace if Russia is unequivocally defeated on the front and driven out of Ukraine permanently. This could have happened already if Biden and Sullivan had not engaged in a “too little too late” game plan that never really was aimed at the total defeat of Russia in Ukraine. That stance has now been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s propensity to be willing to cave in to Russia’s demands and score a “win” for Trump’s deal making. Nobody in the higher echelons of the US government seems able to comprehend and admit the truth of what Zhuravlev said, and how that Russian viewpoint must dictate our response. WW2 only ended with the unequivocal defeat of Hitler’s Germany. The current crisis will only end with the unequivocal defeat of Putin’s Russia. This is what we should be focused on, not Venezuela for God’s sake.
Fascinating. Yet one thing strikes me out - "an SVR interpreter". That's bullshit authored and promoted by Christo Grozev, as far as I remember. It was a regular MFA interpreter whom I know personally.
"Regular MFA interpreter" doesn’t make it any better.
Steve Witkoff walked into the Kremlin, sat across from Putin, and let a Russian national employed by the Russian government translate every word of highly sensitive Ukraine negotiations — with no U.S. interpreter, no American recording, and no one else from the US side in the room for several of those meetings.
That alone is what former US ambassadors (McFaul, Taylor, etc.) and every European diplomat called reckless and amateurish — not because she was secretly wearing an SVR badge, but because she works for one of the two parties waging the war.
Facts nobody disputes:
-Feb, March, April 2025: Witkoff used Kremlin-provided translators
-He brought zero of his own (breaking decades of US protocol)
-The ‘Russian concessions’ he excitedly relayed to Trump evaporated the moment actual diplomats saw the real text
You can personally vouch she’s a nice lady who just works for the MFA. Cool. She’s still a Russian citizen paid by the Russian state translating for the American side in a war Russia is fighting.
That’s the problem.
Calling it ‘normal’ doesn’t make it smart.
Next time a Russian diplomat shows up in Washington and demands we let a random State Department employee translate for him/her in a one-on-one with the President, let me know how that goes over.
You seem to misunderstand what interpreters do. Christo Grozev who cooced that up, neither.
They intepret what is said in one language into another language. And they do it as exactly as possible. If an interpter says anything of his own - not what was actually said at the meeting - then he or she is not qualified.
How do you imagine that? Putin says "I want 6 regions" and the interpreter thinks "no, it's too much" and she said to Witkoff "Putin wants only 4 regions". Do you really think it works out like that? And nobody in the room noticed? Not Lavrow or Ushakov who speak English? They did not notice? Hard to imagine.
It is not up to an interpreter to add anything to what is said. The job is to translate as accurate as possible. So it is Witkoff who is out of his wits here.
Very good read. The stunning amateurism of the US government is not funny; it is an imminent threat to Ukraine (and the rest of Europe). Europe needs to get its act together, fast.
"A plan of action, which Politico’s Dasha Burns had described (citing a “senior White House official”) as a “fait accompli,” cobbled together without the input or consent of Brussels. “We don’t really care about the Europeans,” said that same senior White House official, even though the EU and NATO will have an outsize say in determining the future of Ukraine and Europe, from sanctions relief to security assistance."
This is Vance speaking. He doesn't give a fig what happens to Ukraine, nor does he give a fig what happens to Europe. He said so out loud in Munich. He's close to Bridge Colby, who wants to cut ties to both Ukraine and Europe. These guys would leave NATO altogether if they had their way. Bad times ahead.
This is the price we (the world) pay for putting idiots in charge of all aspects of government, especially foreign policy. Unserious people do not comprehend the damage their imbecilic and craven actions create in the delicate balance of world peace.
The Trump administration doesn’t actually care about world peace. Trump, his sons, Witkoff and his sons, and Jared Kushner care about making real estate deals with Russia, and Trump wants a Trump tower in Moscow. They need this war to go away so they can make money. $$$ is all these people care about.
Midas
I've never been more embarrassed and ashamed to be an American, (and I've been both).
To an unqualified but interested observer of international affairs, it would appear that Russia continues to play chess while the US continues to play checkers and Europe and the rest of NATO are relegated to the sidelines supporting Ukraine. America must do better on all fronts, but it’s dubious under the present administration.
SLAVA UKRAINE 🇺🇦
This clause “If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or St. Petersburg without cause, the security guarantee will be deemed invalid.”
Seems like a deliberate attempt to sneak an easily triggered revocation of said guarantees and justification of a future invasion. An unattributed missile launch from occupied territory say.
An enlightening read, indeed. It would seem we are all, i.e. the world us in big trouble. We can hear the war drums faintly but inexorably beating here in Europe while inept Americans as usual haven't a clue. So sad.... 1930s style politics echoing down through history.
This is a bunch of incompetent, craven greedy bros derisively playing with millions of lives and billions of dollars. WTF is dead-in-the-eyes Kushner doing involved in ANY of this except to mine for dollars. It is way past time to impeach Trump and every single one of these treasonous bastards.
Nope...just nope. This all reads as a very bad spy novel. When do we get our sanity back? At this point, is it even possible...
or a good one. The Looking Glass War
Well, what DOES Putin have on Trump??
Putin is flatly rejecting this deal, according to ISW. Nowhere near his full demands. So no worries about Ukraine having to accept it.
https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-november-21-2025/
In that ISW report you cite:
“…Zhuravlev claimed that the war can only end with Russia’s “unequivocal victory on the front” and with “Ukraine’s capitulation.””
Conversely, there can only be peace if Russia is unequivocally defeated on the front and driven out of Ukraine permanently. This could have happened already if Biden and Sullivan had not engaged in a “too little too late” game plan that never really was aimed at the total defeat of Russia in Ukraine. That stance has now been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s propensity to be willing to cave in to Russia’s demands and score a “win” for Trump’s deal making. Nobody in the higher echelons of the US government seems able to comprehend and admit the truth of what Zhuravlev said, and how that Russian viewpoint must dictate our response. WW2 only ended with the unequivocal defeat of Hitler’s Germany. The current crisis will only end with the unequivocal defeat of Putin’s Russia. This is what we should be focused on, not Venezuela for God’s sake.
Lindsay Graham is not a normie! Not anymore. He has his lips sutured to tRump’s behind. This has been true since 2015 so you are behind.
*The Human Centipede flashbacks intensify*
This degree of American dysfunction in leadership is frightening.
Fascinating. Yet one thing strikes me out - "an SVR interpreter". That's bullshit authored and promoted by Christo Grozev, as far as I remember. It was a regular MFA interpreter whom I know personally.
"Regular MFA interpreter" doesn’t make it any better.
Steve Witkoff walked into the Kremlin, sat across from Putin, and let a Russian national employed by the Russian government translate every word of highly sensitive Ukraine negotiations — with no U.S. interpreter, no American recording, and no one else from the US side in the room for several of those meetings.
That alone is what former US ambassadors (McFaul, Taylor, etc.) and every European diplomat called reckless and amateurish — not because she was secretly wearing an SVR badge, but because she works for one of the two parties waging the war.
Facts nobody disputes:
-Feb, March, April 2025: Witkoff used Kremlin-provided translators
-He brought zero of his own (breaking decades of US protocol)
-The ‘Russian concessions’ he excitedly relayed to Trump evaporated the moment actual diplomats saw the real text
You can personally vouch she’s a nice lady who just works for the MFA. Cool. She’s still a Russian citizen paid by the Russian state translating for the American side in a war Russia is fighting.
That’s the problem.
Calling it ‘normal’ doesn’t make it smart.
Next time a Russian diplomat shows up in Washington and demands we let a random State Department employee translate for him/her in a one-on-one with the President, let me know how that goes over.
You seem to misunderstand what interpreters do. Christo Grozev who cooced that up, neither.
They intepret what is said in one language into another language. And they do it as exactly as possible. If an interpter says anything of his own - not what was actually said at the meeting - then he or she is not qualified.
How do you imagine that? Putin says "I want 6 regions" and the interpreter thinks "no, it's too much" and she said to Witkoff "Putin wants only 4 regions". Do you really think it works out like that? And nobody in the room noticed? Not Lavrow or Ushakov who speak English? They did not notice? Hard to imagine.
It is not up to an interpreter to add anything to what is said. The job is to translate as accurate as possible. So it is Witkoff who is out of his wits here.
We are underestimating Ukraine’s resolve, military and technological capabilities. They are winning this war.
This makes me sick to my ass.
It appears that Putin DOES have the photo of Trump and "Bubba".