Posted on 10/28/2025 4:53:01 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s top economic envoy, arrived in the United States with holes in his sails and no wind to push him forward.
He was a man on a desperate mission.
A phone call between Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, had not gone well. The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, expected to take place within two weeks, was shelved.
The US president had finally lost patience with his Russian counterpart’s refusal to support a ceasefire in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, he slapped Moscow’s largest oil firms with crippling sanctions.
With relations between Moscow and Washington at an all-time low since Mr Trump took office, Mr Dmitriev was dispatched to Miami and Washington to rescue them.
The Russian, who was educated at Stanford and worked on Wall Street, said he was there to prove Moscow was “committed to constructive dialogue”.
His business trip reeked of desperation.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Constructive dialogue is negotiating. The time for negotiations is past.
Getting out of Ukraine and agreeing to reparations is all that is required and is not really negotiable
Dmitriev, a Russian official who plays a key role in backchannel diplomacy between Moscow and Washington, visited the U.S. in the wake of the sanctions. Speaking to U.S. media, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) downplayed their impact, saying that "no pressure works on Russia."
"The Russian economy is a wartime economy. Growth is virtually zero," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, adding that the U.S. can make "a substantial dent" in Russian President Vladimir Putin's profits and push him to negotiations by targeting the oil sector.
Haven’t seen the blast of posts by the usuals claiming sanction busting GDP growth by Russia for some time now🤔😂
Nice add, but Ukrainian “sanctions” are what is really hurting pitin.
Gas station with a country has become an importer of gasoline, diesel, food, ammunition, and equipment…..
Pitin”all is going according to plan”😎
Putin is undefendable. Russia will pay for his deeds for decades.
I all but know it will not happen but I hope the USA does not crow about this and just stays the course until russia capitulates.
“Didn’t take long for Putin to panic after Trump sanctioned those two Rooskii oil companies. “
I’m pretty sure relations soured with Russia when the president decided to do a fly over a some US heavy bombers when Putin went to meet him in Alaska.
Trying to intimidate someone like Putin in that way is amateurish at best.
Then Trump went one better and said that Putin had agreed to US planes in the Ukraine and a peace keeping force. While I’ve been follow this I can see that Putin agreed to no such thing as it would be against everything that Putin has been saying about his reason for going into the Ukraine.. Trump either deliberately or not misunderstood what he said and then went on to broadcast that. A no no in diplomacy.
Having no appreciation for either side in this stupid war, I find the spun headlines and histrionics quite annoying and over the top. Daily. Forever.
Expecting Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine is not realistic IMHO.
Zelensky Admits Pokrovsk Situation Critical; Russia To Destroy Trapped Troops Ukraine Blackout Looms
In addition, Trump, by character and temperament a salesman and promoter, is easily misunderstood by the Russians as weak and eager to please when he seeks a peace deal. The flyover display in Alaska seems to have been meant to counter that misunderstanding and warn Russia against its aggressive saber rattling.
As for the new round of sanctions, before adopting them, Trump and his team did a lot of preparation to make them enforceable against those who purchase oil and gas from Russia. As a result, the sanctions are going to bite and may prove to be decisive on a relatively short time scale.
Moreover, what usually matters most in war is combat power and success or failure in the field. In the initial phase of the invasion, Putin and his circle grossly over rated Russian combat strength, then found out that it was inadequate to carry out a quick take down of Ukraine.
Foolishly, rather than make peace, Putin opted for an attrition strategy, thinking that Russia's size, large population, and staying power would grind out a victory. Unfortunately for Russia, Ukraine has proved to be determined and resilient. Russian ground gains this year are minor and come with heavy casualties. Russia's economy in now struggling.
So why should Trump want Russia to make peace instead of suffering a loss and potential breakdown like what happened at the end of the Cold War? Putin surely deserves a bad end.
Trump knows that an intact and peaceful Russia will align with the US and the West against China. Contrary to what one might have expected, Trump is proving to have a good sense of grand strategy.
“Putin surely deserves a bad end.”
I doubt you would like his replacement. And he no doubt knew there was a risk Putin would be killed. If he went back to Russia talking about US jets in the sky on the boarder of Russia and a peace keeping force in the Ukraine. If the Russian government actually believe he made those concessions he would have fallen out of a window only to be replaced with a hard liner.
Sorry but there’s no way I’m clicking on your malware links. Learned that lesson with Bimbo.
“””””Trump knows that an intact and peaceful Russia will align with the US and the West against China.””””””
It is the opposite, Russia would aid China.
The “his replacement could be worse” claim has been around for decades as to Russian rulers. No matter who succeeds Putin though, a broke and disorderly Russia will inevitably look to the West for help. After all, the West is culturally, geographically, and economically closer to Russia than is China. And China is always ruthlessly predatory in her dealings with foreigners.
China has unresolved territorial claims as to Vladivostok and Russia’s far east. Already, there is discord in Russian security circles to the effect that Putin has over-committed to his Ukraine misadventure and thereby endangered Russia’s control over Vladivostok and its adjacent territory. In addition, Russia is historically, culturally, and geographically closer to the West than China.
There is always friction between China and Russia, but China and Russia are always part of the same anti-America/Anti West team.
Not always. Soviet Russia was so alarmed at Maoist China that they told the US they were going to nuke China. US opposition though averted the attack and helped spur the Nixon-Kissinger opening to China.
And nothing ever really changed, friction, but always on the same team because they have the same enemies, America and the West, just as they are now, North Korea fighting together in Europe with the support of China, and Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, and Nicaragua, the same ol, same ol.
I have a brother who has made the same arguments for over 50 years, always with the friction, but yet Russia and China always remain working together against America and the West.
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