Despite the fits and starts in the NATO-Russian Ukrainian War peace process initiated by the persistent, if inconsistent and often crude US President Donald Trump, it has to be acknowledged that Mr Trump’s efforts are paying off. First, Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelenskiy and now to a certain extent Russian President Vladimir Putin, less recalcitrant that his Ukrainian counterpart, have been maneuvered into making compromises, moving Trump’s peace process forward. Mr Trump has achieved much and is on the cusp of greater things.
Mr Putin has always been ready to talk. His ‘special military operation’ (SMO), as he calls and conceives of it, or ‘unprovoked full-scale invasion’ of Ukraine, as Westerners routinely frame it, in February 2022 was nothing more than a robust exercise in coercive diplomacy. The Istanbul agreement of March-April 2022 that the SMO immediately produced was scuttled by the West, with promises of full military, financial, and political support for Ukraine, sans Western troops, ‘for as long as it takes’ to deal a ‘strategic defeat’ to ‘Putin’s Russia.’ Thus, it was always low hanging fruit for Mr. Trump to nudge Mr. Putin towards negotiations with incentives, especially as Moscow’s forces have enjoyed a still strengthening upper hand on the battlefield ever since 2023.
Ukrainian President, now unelected presidential placeholder, Mr. Zelenskiy, and his countrymen are feeling the consequences of the decision of the then all too green president and former comedian, who had promised to end his country’s tears, to put in his lot with the West’s Russophobes, arms dealers, and dirty democratizers. In doing so, he played into the hands of his homegrown Ukrainian neofascists, who have expanded their influence in the army, state, and society during the war. Mr. Putin’s flexibility and upper hand on the battlefield and Mr. Zelenskiy’s ‘losing hand’ on the same are helping Trump achieve his goal of a Ukrainian peace. This was apparent with the coincidental timing of the collapse of the Ukraine defense front and the beginning of the same of its army, and Mr. Trump’s success in drawing in the Russians, Ukrainians, and even Europeans into talks with him and making compromises on previously held positions.
Alaska ……..
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About the Author –
Gordon M. Hahn, Ph.D., is an Expert Analyst at Corr Analytics, www.canalyt.com. Websites: Russian and Eurasian Politics, gordonhahn.com and gordonhahn.academia.edu
Dr. Hahn is the author of the new book: Russian Tselostnost’: Wholeness in Russian Thought, Culture, History, and Politics (Europe Books, 2022). He has authored five previous, well-received books: The Russian Dilemma: Security, Vigilance, and Relations with the West from Ivan III to Putin (McFarland, 2021); Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West, and the “New Cold War” (McFarland, 2018); The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond (McFarland, 2014), Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), and Russia’s Revolution From Above: Reform, Transition and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime, 1985-2000 (Transaction, 2002). He also has published numerous think tank reports, academic articles, analyses, and commentaries in both English and Russian language media.
Dr. Hahn taught at Boston, American, Stanford, San Jose State, and San Francisco State Universities and as a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia and was a senior associate and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group.