Sunday, August 03, 2025

The farce of Trump and Putin's "peace talks"

From MSNBC:

"The farce of Trump’s Russia-Ukraine peace talks

America’s current leaders place the onus for peace on Ukraine, blaming the victim for the war
 

At an April 25 meeting in Paris, the U.S. presented European countries with a document of terms that “represent the final offer from the United States to both sides.” It is predominantly concessions to Putin, including Ukraine forfeiting land and the right to decide its own foreign relations, plus the removal of international sanctions on Russia. The only thing it calls for Russia to do is stop shooting.

With months of this farcical effort going nowhere, Trump and Vance have started expressing some irritation with Russia. This month, Vance said that Russia is “asking for too much.” After a brief meeting with Zelenskyy at the Vatican in late April, Trump acknowledged that “maybe [Putin] doesn’t want to stop the war.” But it never comes with demands that Russia make concessions, nor a renewed commitment to Ukraine’s defense that could force Russia into a real deal. And it quickly snapped back to Trump excusing Putin.

Russia’s leader didn’t bother going to this month’s summit in Turkey— advertised as the first direct talks between the warring parties —nor did Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Zelenskyy went, as did Rubio and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff. Trying to excuse Putin’s nonattendance and the apparent lack of progress, Trump said this: “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, OK? And obviously he wasn’t going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go.”

It’s worth unpacking how much absurdity is in that one statement. Trump frames the war entirely as the U.S. and Russia settling spheres of influence, as if Ukraine and Europe don’t have any say. Russian propaganda uses the same frame, in part as a “look what you made me do” excuse for Putin’s aggression...

So here’s where things stand as the Turkey summit fails for the same predictable reasons:

Russia pretends it’s interested in peace to perpetuate the absurd narrative that Russia’s war isn’t Russia’s fault.

The U.S. pretends Russia is interested in peace to perpetuate the absurd narrative that Trump is pursuing peace and advancing American interests, rather than hoping to see Russia’s aggression succeed as his actions indicate.

And Ukraine pretends the Trump administration is pursuing a just peace to counter the absurd narrative that Ukraine is somehow the obstacle to peace, hoping that the umpteenth failure of peace talks will convince America and enough of the world that the obstacle now is what it has been the whole time: Putin and Russia."

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